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H I: \ll Wl LINCOLN 



Lincoln Centennial 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED AT THE MEMORIAL EXERCISES 

HELD AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 

FEBRUARY 12, 1909 



Commemorating 

The One Hundredth Birthday of 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Published by 

THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION 

1909 



.I'7 



JOURNAL CO.. PRINTERS, SPRINOntLD. ILL. 



Q 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Frontispiece ; Lincoln 4 

Joint Resolution of the Illinois General Assembly ... 4 

Illinois Centennial Commission; members 5 

Lincoln Centennial Association; incorporators 6 

Summary of Memorial Exercises 7 

At the Armory ; mention 10 

Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Jusserand 11 

Ambassador Jusserand's address 16 

Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Bryce 27 

Ambassador Bryce's address 29 

Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Bryan 36 

Hon. William J. Bryan's address 37 

Judge Humphrey, introducing Senator Dolliver. ... 52 

Senator Dolliver's address 53 

Senator Cullom's letter 60 

Hon. Booker T. Washington's letter 63 

Mr. Charles Henry Butler's poem 67 

At the Tabernacle ; mention 75 

Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Jusserand 76 

Ambassador Jusserand's address 78 

Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Bryce 82 

Ambassador Bryce's address 83 

Governor Deneen, introducing Senator Dolliver ... 88 

Senator Dolliver's address 89 

Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Bryan 113 

Hon. William J. Bryan's address 114 

At St. John's Church; mention 132 

Dr. Thomas D. Logan's address 133 

At the Court House; mention 159 

The Memorial Tablet _ 160 

Colonel Mills, introducing Judge Cartwright 164 

Judge Cartwright's address 166 

Colonel Mills, introducing Judge Creighton 174 

Judge Creighton's address 175 

At the High School; mention 182 

General John W. Noble's address 183 

At the Lincoln Home; mention 208 

At the Historical Library; mention 209 

At the Executive Mansion; mention 210 

At the Lincoln Tomb; mention 211 

At the Country Club; mention 213 

The Veteran Guard of Honor; list 214 

The Illinois Centennial Commission; list 216 

The Lincoln Centennial Association; list 217 



SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 22 

Whereas, The one hundredth anniversary of the 
birth of Abraham Lincoln will occur on the 12th 
day of February, 1909; and, 

Whereas, It is fitting and proper that the State 
of Illinois should celebrate the anniversary of the 
birth of this greatest of all American statesmen; 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, by the Senate of the State of Illinois, the 
House of Representatives concurring therein, That 
the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Abraham Lincoln be celebrated in the city of 
Springfield on the 12th day of February, 1909; and, 
be it further 

Resolved, That the Governor is hereby authorized 
and empowered to appoint a commission of fifteen 
representative citizens of this State to have charge 
of all arrangements tor such celebration. 

Adopted by the Senate, October S, 1907. 
Concurred in by the House. October 9, 1907. 



STATE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION 

John W. Bunn 
Ben F. Caldwell 
Edwin L. Chapin 
James A. Connolly 
James A. Creighton 
Shelby M. Cullom 
J Otis Humphrey 
William Jayne 
Edward D. Keys 
Alfred Orendorff 
Nicholas Roberts 
James A. Rose 
Edgar S. Scott 
Lawrence Y. Sherman 
Philip Barton Warren 



LINCOLN CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION 

[INCORPORATORS] 

Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice U. S. 

Supreme Court 
Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, U. S. S. 
Hon. Albert J. Hopkins, U. S. S. 
Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, M. C. 
Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson 
Hon. Charles S. Deneen, Governor 
Hon. John P. Hand, Chief Justice Sup. Court 
Hon. J Otis Humphrey, Judge U. S. Dist. Court 
Hon. James A. Rose, Secretary of State 
Hon. Ben F. Caldwell, M. C. 
Hon. Richard Yates 
Melville E. Stone, Esq., New York 
Horace White, Esq., New York 
John W. Bunn, Esq. 
Dr. William Jayne 



SUMMARY 

The memorial exercises, celebrating the one 
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham 
Lincoln, were held under the general direction of 
the State Centennial commission, working in con- 
junction with the Lincoln Centennial association, 
(incorporated) and consisted of a number of dis- 
tinct events so arranged as not to conflict with 
each other as to date or purpose. Each separate 
event was a distinct success and the numbers in 
attendance were limited in every instance by the 
capacity of the buildings in which the exercises 
were held. The more important events included 
in these memorial exercises were as follows: 

The Armory meeting, at which addresses were 
made by Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce and 
by Senator Dolliver and Mr. Bryan, and a banquet 
served to 800 guests; 

The Tabernacle meeting, earlier in the day, at 
which an audience of 10,000 was addressed by the 
same distinguished speakers; 



Page eight 

The religious services held at St. John's Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church (formerly the First Pres- 
byterian church where Mr. Lincoln worshiped 
while living in Springfield) at which Rev. Dr. 
Thomas D. Logan delivered the principal address; 

The Grand Army meeting at which a Lincoln 
tree was planted in the Court House square by 
the veterans, after which ceremony they marched 
to the Lincoln tomb, served as a Guard of Honor 
during the day and, in a body, attended the ban- 
quet at night; 

The Sons of the American Revolution meeting, 
at which addresses were delivered by Judges 
Cartwright and Creighton and a memorial tablet, 
marking the site of the old Lincoln law office, was 
unveiled at 109 North Fifth street; 

The Daughters of the American Revolution meet- 
ting, consisting of a reception at the old Lincoln 
home and a luncheon served at the rooms of the 
Young Men's Christian association; 

The State Historical society mooting in the 
library at the State Capitol including a reception 
and addresses; 



Page nine 

The High School meeting, the principal feature 
of which was the address of Gen. John W. Noble 
of St. Louis; 

An informal reception at the Executive Mansion 
at which the guests of the commission together 
with State officials, Justices of the Supreme Court 
and others paid their respects to Governor and 
Mrs. Deneen; 

A visit to the Lincoln tomb participated in by 
the guests of the commission, as well as by State 
and city officials and many citizens of Springfield; 

An informal luncheon served at the home of the 
Illini Country Club in honor of the city's guests. 



Page ten 



AT THE ARMORY 

The principal event of the celebration was the 
banquet in the evening at the Armory. Here 
eight hundred and fifty members of the Centennial 
association with their guests were seated at 
seventy-one tables, and the galleries were filled 
with spectators and auditors. The hall of the 
armory was brilliantly illuminated and conspicu- 
ous among the decorations were the national 
colors of France and of England mingled with 
those of the United States. Judge J Otis Hum- 
phrey presided as toastmaster. Addresses were 
delivered by the French Ambassador, the British 
Ambassador, Senator Dolliver and Mr. Bryan. 
Letters of regret from Senator Cullom and Booker 
T. Washington were read and a poem by Charles 
Henry Butler. The letters, poem and addresses 
with the introductory remarks of the toastmaster 
are given on the following pages. 



Page eleven 



JUDGE HUMPHREY 

Introducing the French Ambassador 

Perhaps never again in any presence will so 
many of his old associates be assembled together 
to do honor to that immortal character given to 
the world by the great republic. We are in the 
midst of a universal celebration of which Spring- 
field is recognized as the center, and to know 
what is said and done here today the world is 
standing at attention. Many men in all ages have 
taught lessons of patriotism: Mr. Lincoln taught 
patriotism plus humanity. He knew as few others 
have known the lesson that, more than wealth, 
more than fame, more than any other thing, is 
the power of the human heart. 

The notion has long been prevalent in the east 
and to some extent among historians of the period 
that Mr. Lincoln's greatness was all attained after 
he became President. Let that fallacy be forever 
set at rest. True it is that the general recog- 
nition of his greatness came with his broadened 



Page twelve 

opportunities, but his old friends in Illinois had 
for years known his power and recognized his 
strength. 

Those who had worked with him or who had 
opposed him in the arena of justice; those who 
were factors in his combinations who associated 
with him or took orders from him in his various 
political campaigns, knew his subtle diplomacy 
and his easy mastery of men. Some of those men 
still remain to us, some of them are here tonight. 
They had seen him convince courts, control juries 
and sway the masses; they heard the Bloomington 
speech and the spell of it is still over them. They 
knew his powers of expression, his moderation of 
statement; his willingness to yield nonessentials, 
his immovable adherence to what he regarded as 
important. They saw in him then what the world 
sees now, a rare combination of gentleness, genius 
and strength. So, when at Washington they saw 
his apparent yielding to his great secretaries, going 
Seward's way yesterday, and Chase's way today, 
and Stanton's way tomorrow, these men knew 
as the country did not know, that Mr. Lincoln was 
all tlic time going his own way and that he would 
carry the secretaries with him. 



Page thirteen 

From that rugged poet, Edwin Markham, paint- 
ing him in colors so rich that I could never hope to 
equal them, we learn that: 

When the Norn-Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour, 

Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, 

She bent the strenuous Heavens and came down 

To make a man to meet the mortal need. 

She took the tried clay of the common road — 

Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, 

Dashed through it all a strain of prophesy; 

Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff. 

It was a stuff to wear for centuries, 

A man that matched the mountains and compelled 

The stars to look our way and honor us. 

The color of the ground was in him, the red earth; 

The tang and odor of the primal things — 

The rectitude and patience of the rocks; 

The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn; 

The courage of the bird that dares the sea; 

The justice of the rain that loves all leaves; 

The pity of the snow that hides all scars; 

The loving kindness of the wayside well; 

The tolerance and equity of light that gives as freely to 

The shrinking weed as to the great oak flaring to the wind — 

The grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn 

That shoulders out the sky. 

And so he came. 

From prairie cabin to the Capital, 
One fair Ideal led our chieftain on. 
Forevermore he burned to do his deed 



Page fourteen 

With the fine stroke and gesture of a king. 
He built the rail pile as he built the state, 
Pouring his splended strength through every blow, 
The conscience of him testing every stroke, 
To make his deed the measure of a man. 

So came the Captain with the mighty heart; 
And when the step of Earthquake shook the house, 
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient hold, 
He held the ridge pole up, and spiked again 
The rafters of the Home. He held his place- 
Held the long purpose like a growing tree- 
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise. 
And when he fell in Whirlwind, he went down 
As when a kingly cedar green with boughs 
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, 
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. 

Since colonial days France has been the con- 
stant friend of America; in the recent generations 
when the peoples of the earth, caught up in the 
mighty sweep of God's purposes, have been tend- 
ing more and more toward representative govern- 
ment, these two nations have been marching in 
the front rank; each has taught her citizens to 
speak plain, the great sweet word, Liberty; each 
has experienced the difficulty of teaching that 
the sovereignty of self over self is the highest 
liberty; each has taught that as liberty is the 
summit of society, so equality before the law is 



Page fifteen 

the basis of organized government; each has stood 
to the other, sometimes as an example and some- 
times a warning, and these lessons of history have 
been profitable to both. 

The greatest republic of the old world greets 
us tonight in the person of one of her most dis- 
tinguished citizens. Gentlemen, I have pleasure 
in presenting the scholar, the author, the diplo- 
matist, His Excellency, Mr. J. J. Jusserand, the 
French Ambassador. 



Page sixteen 



THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR 

Abraham Lincoln as France Regarded Him 

On two tragic occasions, at a century's distance, 
the fate of this country has trembled in the bal- 
ance: Would it be a free nation? Would it 
continue to be one nation? A leader was wanted 
on both occasions, a very different one in each 
case. This boon from above was granted to the 
American people who had a Washington when 
a Washington was needed and a Lincoln when 
a Lincoln could save them. 

Both had enemies, both had doubters, but both 
were recognized by all open-minded people and, 
above all, by the nation at large, as the men to 
shape the nation's destinies. When the Marquis 
de Chastellux came to America as chief of staff 
in the army of Rochambeau, his first thought was 
to go and see his friend Lafayette and, at the 
same time, Washington. He has noted in his 
memoirs what were, on first sight, his impressions 
of the not yet victorious, not yet triumphant, not 
yet universally admired American patriot: 



Page teventeen 

"I saw," he said, "M. de Lafayette talking 
in the yard with a tall man of 5 feet 9 inches, of 
noble mien and sweet face. It was the general 
himself. I dismounted and soon felt myself at 
my ease by the side of the greatest and best of 
all men. All who meet him trust him, but no 
one is familiar with him, because the sentiment 
he inspires to all has ever the same cause; a pro- 
found esteem for his virtues and the highest 
opinion of his talents. " So wrote a foreigner who 
was not Lafayette, who suddenly found himself 
face to face with the great man. Any chance 
comer, any passer-by would have been similarly 
impressed. He inspired confidence and those 
who saw him felt that the fate of the country was 
safe in his hands. 

A century of almost unbroken prosperity had 
nearly elapsed when came the hour of the nation's 
second trial. Though it may seem to us a small 
matter compared with what we have seen since, 
the development had been considerable; the scat- 
tered colonies of yore had become a great nation, 
and now it seemed as if all was in doubt again; 
the nation was young, wealthy, powerful, pros- 

— 2 L C 



Page eighteen 

perous; it had immense domains and resources; 
yet it seemed as if her fate would parallel those 
of old empires described by Tacitus, which, with- 
out foes, crumble to pieces under their own weight. 
Within her own frontiers elements of destruction 
or disruption had been growing; hatreds were em- 
bittered among people equally brave, bold and 
sure of their rights. The edifice raised by Wash- 
ington was trembling on its base; a catastrophe 
was at hand. Then it was that in the middle- 
sized, not yet world-famous town, Chicago by 
name, the republican convention called there for 
the first time, met to choose a candidate for the 
presidency. It has met there again since, and has 
made, each time, a remarkable choice. 

In 1860 it chose a man whom my predecessor 
of those days, announcing the news to his govern- 
ment, described as "a man almost unknown, Mr. 
Abraham Lincoln." Almost unknown was he, in- 
deed, at home as well as abroad, and the news 
of his selection was received with anxiety. My 
country, France, was then governed by Napoleon 
III; all liberals had their eyes fixed on America. 
Your example was the great example which gave 
heart to our most progressive men. You had 



Page nineteen 



proved that republican government was possible, 
by having one. If it broke to pieces, so would 
the hopes of all those among us who expected 
that one day we would have the same. And the 
partisans of autocracy were loud in their assertion 
that a republic was well and good for a country 
without enemies or neighbors but that, if a storm 
arose, it would be shattered. A storm arose and 
the helm had been placed in the hands of that 
man almost unknown, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. 
" We still remember, " wrote, years later, the illus- 
trious French writer, Prevost-Paradol, "the un- 
easiness with which we awaited the first words 
of that President then unknown, upon whom a 
heavy task had fallen and from whose advent 
to power might be dated the ruin or regeneration 
of his country. All we knew was that he had 
sprung up from the humblest walks of life, that 
his youth had been spent in manual labor; that 
he had then risen by degrees in his town, in his 
county and in his state. What was this favorite 
of the people? Democratic societies are liable to 
errors which are fatal to them. But as soon as 
Mr. Lincoln arrived in Washington, as soon as 
he spoke, all our doubts and fears were dissipated ; 



Page twenty 



and it seemed to us that fate itself had pronounced 
in favor of the good cause, since, in such an emer- 
gency, it had given to the country an honest 



man. " 



The first words (the now famous inaugural 
address) had been, for Prevost-Paradol and for 
millions of others, what a first glance at Wash- 
ington had been for Chastellux, a revelation that 
the man was a man, a great and honest one, and 
that, once more, the fate of the country, at an 
awful period, had been placed in safe hands. 

Well indeed might people have wondered and 
felt anxious when they remembered how little 
training in great affairs the new ruler had had 
and the incredible difficulties of the problems he 
would have to solve; his heart bleeding at the 
very thought, for he had to fight "not enemies, 
but friends. We must not be enemies." No 
romance of adventure reads more like a romance 
than the true story of Lincoln's youth and of the 
wanderings of his family from Virginia to Ken- 
tucky, from Kentucky to Indiana, from Indiana 
to the newly-formed state of Illinois, having first 
to clear a part of the forest to build a doorlcss, 
windowlcss cabin, with one room for all the uses 



Page twenty-one 

of them all; Lincoln, the grandson of a man killed 
by the Indians, the son of a father who never 
succeeded in anything, and whose utmost literary 
accomplishment consisted in signing with great 
difficulty, his own name — an accomplishment he 
had in common with the father of Shakespeare; 
the whole family leading a sort of life in compari- 
son with which that of Robinson Crusoe was one 
of sybaritic enjoyment. That in those trackless, 
neighborless, bookless parts of the country he 
could learn and educate himself was the first great 
wonder of his life; it showed, once more, that 
learning does not so much depend upon the mas- 
ter's teaching as upon the pupil's desire. 

But no book, no school, no talk with refined 
men, would have taught him what his rough 
life did. Confronted every day and every hour 
of the day with problems which had to be solved, 
he got the habit of seeing, deciding and acting 
by himself. Accustomed from childhood to live 
surrounded by the unknown and meet the unex- 
pected, his soul learnt to be astonished at nothing 
and, instead of losing any time in wondering, to 
seek at once the way out of the difficulty. What 
the forest, what the swamp, what the river taught 



Page twenty-two 

Lincoln cannot be over-estimated. After long 
years of it, and shorter years at long-vanished 
New Salem, here at Springfield, at Vandalia, the 
former capital, where he met some descendants 
of his precursors in the forest, the French "Cour- 
eurs de bois, " almost suddenly he found himself 
transferred to the post of greatest honor and 
greatest danger. And what then would say the 
"man almost unknown," the backwoodsman of 
yesterday? What would he say? What did he 
say? THE RIGHT THING. 

He was accustomed not to be surprised, but 
to decide and act. And so, confronted with cir- 
cumstances which were so extraordinary as to be 
new to all, he was the man least astonished in 
the government. His rough and shrewd instinct 
proved of better avail than the clever minds of 
his more refined and better instructed seconds. 
It was Lincoln's instinct which checked Seward's 
complicated schemes and dangerous calculations. 
Lincoln could not calculate so cleverly but he 
could guess better. 

His instinct, his good sense, his personal dis- 
interestedness, his warmth of heart for friend and 
foe, his high aims, led him through the awful 



Page twenty-three 

years of anguish and bloodshed during which 
ceaselessly increased the number of fields decked 
with tombs and no one knew whether there would 
be one powerful nation or two weaker ones, the 
odds were so great. They led him through the 
worst and through the best hours, and that of 
triumph found him none other than what he had 
ever been before, a man of duty, the devoted ser- 
vant of his country, with deeper furrows on his face 
and more melancholy in his heart. And so, after 
having saved the nation, he went to his doom 
and fell, as he had long foreseen, a victim to the 
cause for which he had fought. 

The emotion caused by the event was immense. 
Among my compatriots, part were for the south, 
part for the north; they should not be blamed; 
it was the same in America. But the whole of 
those who had liberal ideas, the bulk of the nation, 
considered neither north nor south and thought 
only whether the republic would survive and con- 
tinue a great republic or be shattered to pieces. 
The efforts of Lincoln to preserve the Union were 
followed with keen anxiety and the fervent hope 
that he would succeed. 



Page twtnty-four 

When the catastrophe happened there were no 
more differences and the whole French nation 
was united in feeling. From the emperor and 
empress, who telegraphed to Mrs. Lincoln, to the 
humblest workman, the emotion was the same; a 
wave of sympathy covered the country, such a 
one as was never seen before. A subscription 
was opened to have a medal struck and a copy 
in gold presented to Mrs. Lincoln. In order that 
it might be a truly national offering, it was decided 
that no one would be permitted to subscribe more 
than 2 cents. The necessary money was collected 
in an instant and the medal was struck, bearing 
these memorable words: "Dedicated by French 
democracy to Lincoln, honest man, who abolished 
slavery, re-established the Union, saved the re- 
public without veiling the statue of Liberty." 

The French press was unanimous; from the 
royalist Gazette de France to the liberal Journal 
des Debats came forth the same expression of 
admiration and sorrow. "A christian," said the 
Gazette de France, " has just ascended before the 
throne of the Final Judge, accompanied by the 
souls of four millions of slaves created like ours 
in the image of God, and who have been endowed 



Page twenty-five 

with freedom by a word from him." Prevost- 
Paradol, a member of the French academy and a 
prominent liberal, wrote: "The political instinct 
which made enlightened Frenchmen interested in 
the maintenance of the American power, more 
and more necessary to the equilibrium of the 
world; the desire to see a great democratic state 
surmount terrible trials and continue to give an 
example of the most perfect liberty united with 
the most absolute equality, assured the cause of 
the north a number of friends among us. * * * 
Lincoln was indeed an honest man, giving to the 
word its full meaning, or rather the sublime sense 
which belongs to it, when honesty was to contend 
with the severest trials which can agitate states, 
and with events which have influence on the fate 
of the world. Mr. Lincoln had but one object 
in view from the day of his election to that of his 
death, namely, the fulfillment of his duty, and 
his imagination never carried him beyond it. He 
has fallen at the very foot of the altar, covering 
it with his blood. But his work was done, and 
the spectacle of a rescued republic was what he 
could look upon with consolation when his eyes 
were closing in death. Moreover, he has not 



Page twenty-sit 

lived for his country alone, since he leaves to 
everyone in the world to whom liberty and justice 
are dear, a great remembrance and a pure ex- 
ample. " 

When, in a log cabin in Kentucky, a hundred 
years ago this day, that child was born who was 
named after his grandfather killed by the Indians, 
Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon I swayed Europe, 
Jefferson was President of the United States, and 
the second war of independence had not yet come 
to pass. It seems all very remote. But the 
memory of the great man whom we try to honor 
today is as fresh in everybody's mind as if he had 
only just left us. "It is," says Plutarch, "the 
fortune of all good men that their virtue rises in 
glory after their death, and that the envy which 
any evil man may have conceived against them 
never survives the envious. " Such was the fate 
of Abraham Lincoln. 



Page twenty-seven 



JUDGE HUMPHREY 

Introducing the British Ambassador 

There is a nation which governs one acre in 
five of the territory of the earth and one person 
in five of the population of the world. It is 
developed out of Briton and Phoenician and Roman 
and Saxon and Dane and Norman. Amid the 
shifting sands of government it stands as a rock 
of empire. A people governed not by a written 
constitution but by a working, worldly wisdom; 
where efficient results of government are accom- 
panied with the least machinery of government; 
where there is order without despotism and liberty 
without license; where lynch law is unknown; 
where justice is certain and as prompt as certain. 

One of the most gifted sons of Great Britain 
honors us with his presence tonight. So surely 
has he a fixed place in the intellectual world, 
that students of modern political systems look 
to him as master and guide. So wisely has he 
written of our own political institutions that 



Page txenty-eiglU 

American scholars sit at his feet and drink in the 
learning of his noble mind. He is the ripened 
fruit of centuries of Anglo-Saxon progress. 

I have the pleasure of presenting His Excellency, 
The Right Honorable James Bryce, The British 
Ambassador. 



Page twenty-nine 



THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR 

Some Reflections on the Character and Career of 

Lincoln 

You are met to commemorate a great man, one 
of your greatest, great in what he did, even greater 
in what he was. One hundred years have passed 
since in a lowly hut in the bordering state of Ken- 
tucky this child of obscure and unlettered parents 
was born into a country then still wild and thinly 
peopled. Three other famous men were born in 
that same year in England: Alfred Tennyson, 
the most gifted poet who has used our language 
since Wordsworth died; William Gladstone, the 
most powerful, versatile and high-minded states- 
man of the last two generations in Britain, and 
Charles Darwin, the greatest naturalist since Lin- 
naeus, and chief among the famous scientific dis- 
coverers of the nineteenth century. It was a 
wonderful year, and one who knew these three 
illustrious Englishmen whom I have named is 
tempted to speak of them and compare and con- 



Page thirty 

trast each one of them with that illustrious con- 
temporary of theirs whose memory we are met to 
honor. He quitted this world long before them 
but with a record to which a long life could scarcely 
have added any further lustre. 

Of the personal impression he made on those who 
knew him, you will hear from some of the few yet 
living who can recollect him. All I can contribute 
is a reminiscence of what reached us in England. 
T was an undergraduate student in the University 
of Oxford when the civil war broke out. Well do 
I remember the surprise when the Republican 
national convention nominated him as candidate 
for the Presidency, for it had been expected that 
the choice would fall upon William H. Seward. I 
recollect how it slowly dawned upon Europeans in 
1862 and 1863 that the President could be no or- 
dinary man, because he never seemed cast down 
by the reverses which befell his armies; because he 
never let himself be hurried into premature action 
nor feared to take so bold a step as the Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation was when he saw that the time 
had arrived. And above all I remember the shock 
of awe and grief which thrilled all Britain when 
the news came that he had perished by the bullet 



Page thirty-one 

of an assassin. There have been not a few murders 
of the heads of states in our time, but none smote 
us with such horror and such pity as the death of 
this great, strong and merciful man in the moment 
when his long and patient efforts had been crowned 
with victory and peace had just begun to shed her 
rays over a land laid waste by the march of armies. 

We in England already felt then that a great as 
well as a good man had departed, though it re- 
mained for later years to enable us all (both you 
here and we in the other hemisphere) fully to appre- 
ciate his greatness. Both among you and with us 
his fame has continued to rise till he has now be- 
come one of the grandest figures whom America 
has given to world history to be a glory first of 
this country, then also of mankind. 

A man may be great by intellect or by character 
or by both. The highest men are great by both; 
and of these was Abraham Lincoln. Endowed 
with powers that were solid rather than shining, 
he was not what is called a brilliant man. Perhaps 
the want of instruction and stimulation during his 
early life prevented his naturally vigorous mind 
from learning how to work nimbly. The disad- 
vantages of his boyhood, the want of books and 



Page thirty-two 

teachers, were so met and overcome by his love of 
knowledge and his strenuous will that he drew 
strength from them. Thoughtfulness and inten- 
sity, the capacity to reflect steadily and patiently 
on a problem till it has been solved is one of the two 
most distinct impressions which one gets from that 
strong, rugged face with its furrowed brow and 
deep-set eyes. 

The other impression is that of unshaken and 
unshakable resolution. Slow in reaching a decision 
he held fearlessly to it when he had reached it. He 
had not merely physical courage and that in ample 
measure, but the rarer quality of being willing to 
face misconception and unpopularity. It was his 
dauntless courage and his clear thinking that fitted 
Lincoln to be the pilot who brought your ship 
through the wildest tempest that ever broke upon 
her. 

Three points should not be forgotten which, if 
they do not add to Lincoln's greatness, make it 
more attractive. One is the fact that he rose all 
unaided to the pinnacle of power and responsibility. 
Rarely indeed has it happened in history, hardly at 
all could it have happened in the last century out- 
side America, that one born in poverty, with no 



Page thirty-three 

help throughout his youth from intercourse with 
educated people, with no friend to back him except 
those whom the impression of his own personality 
brought round him, should so rise. A second is 
the gentleness of his heart. He who has to refuse 
every hour requests from those whom a private 
person would have been glad to indulge, he who 
has to punish those whom a private person would 
pity and pardon, can seldom retain either tender- 
ness or patience. But Lincoln's tenderness and 
patience were inexhaustible. 

It is often said that every great man is unscrup- 
ulous, and doubtless most of those to whom usage 
has attached the title have been so. To preserve 
truthfulness and conscientiousness appears scarcely 
possible in the stress of life where immense issues 
seem to make it necessary and therefore make it 
right to toss aside the ordinary rules of conduct in 
order to secure the end desired. To Abraham 
Lincoln, however, truthfulness and conscientious- 
ness remained the rule of life. He felt and owned 
his responsibility not only to the people but to a 
higher power. Few men have so stainless a record. 



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Page thirty-four 

To you, men of Illinois, Lincoln is the most fa- 
mous and worthy of all those who have adorned your 
commonwealth. To you, citizens of the United 
States, he is the president who carried you through 
a terrible conflict and saved the Union. To us in 
England he is one of the heroes of the race whence 
you and we spring. We honor his memory as you 
do, and it is fitting that one who is privileged here 
to represent the land from which his forefathers 
came should bring on behalf of England a tribute 
of admiration for him and of thankfulness to the 
Providence which gave him to you in your hour of 
need. 

Great men are the noblest possession of a nation 
and are potent forces in the moulding of national 
character. Their influence lives after them and, if 
they be good as well as great, they remain as bea- 
cons lighting the course of all who follow them. 
They set for succeeding generations the standards 
of the youth who seek to emulate their virtues in 
the sendee of the country. Thus did the memory 
of George Washington stir and rouse Lincoln him- 
self. Thus will the memory of Lincoln live and 
endure among you, gathering reverence from age 
to age, the memory of one who saved your republic 



Page thirty-five 

by his wisdom, his constancy, his faith in the people 
and in freedom; the memory of a plain and simple 
man, yet crowned with the knightly virtues of 
truthfulness, honor and courage. 



Page thirty-six 



JUDGE HUMPHREY 

Introducing Mr. Bryan 

An eminent American, whose words have repeat- 
edly touched the hearts and moved the minds of 
the people of the land, should need no introduction 
at my hands. Primarily he belongs to Illinois; 
sister states or the nation may adopt him, but to 
us he will ever be hailed as a son of Illinois. With 
a generous pride in the achievements he has 
wrought ; with a full recognition of the purity of his 
private life which makes him an example for the 
youth of the land; with a love which the zeal of 
party politics can never destroy, let us say to him 
tonight, welcome home, Mr. Bryan! 



Page thirty-ieven 



HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN 

The Art of Government 

I appreciate this cordial welcome to the State 
of my birth. I am glad that there is an interim 
between campaigns when we can forget the an- 
imosities aroused by party strife and come face 
to face with the fact that the things that we hold 
in common are more numerous and more impor- 
tant than our political differences. 

In a country where parties govern and where 
people act through parties, we are apt to over- 
estimate the importance of the questions upon 
which we divide and under-estimate the enduring 
qualities that underlie all parties and unite us in a 
common citizenship. 

I appreciate the more than generous words that 
have been spoken in presenting me to you and I 
appreciate the splendid opportunity that this oc- 
casion has given us to hear from the representa- 
tives of foreign lands. I think Great Britain and 
France have paid our country a high compliment 



Page thirty-eight 

in sending as their representatives two such men 
as those to whom we have listened. A compli- 
ment, I say, those nations have paid us in sending 
us representatives who stand upon their own merits 
and accomplishments and need no high titles to 
command universal respect and admiration. 

I am glad we live in a day when nations can be 
friendly to each other, and each bid all others 
God speed, for we have reached the day when we 
understand that as the citizen can wish well to 
every other citizen, that as the citizen can recognize 
that his own good is best promoted by the highest 
development of all about him, so each nation can 
recognize that its welfare is not impeded but ad- 
vanced by the advancement of all the other 
nations. 

I am glad we have reached the day when nations 
do not look upon each other with envious eye or 
begrudge each other any great success; when the 
rivalry is not to see which can do the other harm 
but to see which can hold highest the light that 
guides all to higher ground. 

The subject that I have selected for this evening 
is really too large a subject for an occasion of this 
kind, and you must not expect my speech to have 



Page thirty-nine 

a length commensurate with the magnitude of the 
theme; for, coming as I do, after the speech of the 
toastmaster, after the speeches of the ambassadors 
from Great Britain and France, coming as I do 
before one to whom you will listen with delight, I 
cannot violate the proprieties of the occasion by a 
speech of any considerable length; but it seems to 
me that at this time it is fitting to submit just a few 
words on The Royal Art of Government, for it has 
been so described and fitly described. 

The art of government is not only the art in 
which kings have sought to manifest their ability, 
but it is the art that comes into closest and most 
constant contact with the citizen, and I might give 
you two reasons for selecting that subject for to- 
night; first, because Lincoln illustrates, as few men 
in history have illustrated, the possibilities of our 
government and the stimulus to greatness that a 
republic can give; and the second is that Lincoln 
was an artist in the art of government, and pos- 
sessed as few men in high position have ever pos- 
sessed, all of the qualities that tend to fit one for 
the exalted work of a chief executive. 

Let me briefly enumerate some of these qualities. 
He had a sense of responsibility — no man more so. 



Page forty 

The relation between himself and his God was one 
clearly defined in his own mind. He recognized 
that to that Supreme Being he was responsible for 
every thought and word and act. 

There is a world of difference between the man 
who is trying to conform to an opinion about him, 
and the man who is trying to approximate his liv- 
ing to a high standard — a world of difference be- 
tween the man who is trying to do right when he 
thinks the people are looking at him, and the man 
who tries to do right because he believes the eye of 
God is ever upon him. 

The man who is trying to do right when he 
thinks people are watching, will find a time, some- 
times, when he thinks the people are not looking, 
and then he takes a vacation and falls. I believe 
that one of the reasons why Lincoln lived his life 
without a fall was that he was not watching the 
people around him, but acted in the belief that he 
was watched by One who never sleeps. 

Another quality — Lincoln used self-control. The 
man who would govern others must first govern 
himself; and when he has learned to govern himself, 
he has taken the next step toward meeting the re- 
sponsibilities of high positions. "He that ruleth 



Page forty-one 

his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a 
city ; " and Lincoln was the undisputed ruler of him- 
self and of his own spirit. 

He had humility. Few men so great have been 
so humble as he. Humility is a hard virtue to 
cultivate. If a man has great wealth, he is apt to 
be proud of his wealth. If he has great learning, 
he is likely to be proud of his learning. If he has 
distinguished ancestry, he is quite sure to be proud 
of his pedigree, and someone has said that humility 
is so difficult a virtue to cultivate that, if one really 
becomes humble, he is soon proud of his humility! 
But Lincoln's favorite poem was " Why Should the 
Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" 

Lincoln understood how little of any man's great- 
ness is really a self-made greatness. Lincoln un- 
derstood, as few have understood, how much we 
owe to those who have gone before us, and to 
those about us. 

Who will measure our obligation to those who 
laid foundations for our Republic ! Who will meas- 
ure our obligation to those who surrounded us with 
the privileges that we enjoy! When we come to 
analyze our accomplishments, we find that that 
which can be properly traced to ourselves is infin- 



Page forty -two 

itesimal, while that which is traceable to the influ- 
ence that others have exerted upon us is immeasur- 
able. 

Lincoln had courage. As has been well said by 
the distinguished ambassador from Great Britain, 
Lincoln had moral courage. The world recognizes 
the courage of the man who walks up to the mouth 
of the cannon and without wavering gives his life 
on his country's altar. I say to you, my friends, 
that man shares physical courage with the beast, 
but he shares moral courage with Him in whose 
image he was made. 

Lincoln had the courage to face any kind of op- 
position, to meet any kind of criticism, to disregard 
any kind of ridicule. And why? Because he had 
another virtue. He had faith. If you tell me that 
" works are more important than faith, " I tell you 
that there are no works until there is first a faith to 
inspire the works. 

Only those who believe do great things; and 
Lincoln believed. Lincoln had patience, and only 
those who have faith have patience ; only those who 
can see that there is a triumph coming have 
the patience to wait until it comes. Aye, Lincoln 
needed patience, as everyone in such a position as 



Page forty-three 

he occupied needs patience. There were around 
him men who could not wait, men who wanted to 
see today the thing for which they longed and 
worked ; but Lincoln knew that it took time to ac- 
complish great things. He had patience, the pa- 
tience that the parent has who watches the growing 
child, knowing that no anxiety or solicitude can 
hasten that child 's development ; the patience of one 
who plants a tree and knows that, if it is to be a 
sturdy tree, it must take years in its growth and 
development. 

Lincoln had fidelity. He was faithful. The 
people knew they could trust him, because his 
fidelity stood out and shone out, and embraced all 
who came into contact with him; and then Lincoln 
had an understanding of the development of gov- 
ernments and civilization. In that immortal ut- 
terance at Gettysburg he spoke of the unfinished 
work to which those present should consecrate 
themselves. He knew that every generation leaves 
an unfinished work, that every generation finds the 
work incomplete when it comes, and, labor as it 
will, leaves it still unfinished when it departs. 

I might have justified my description of the art 
of government by reference to these qualities that 



Page forty-four 

Lincoln possessed, but my purpose was a different 
one. I desired, rather, briefly to trace the growth 
and development of this royal art. When Solomon 
found the responsibilities of government resting 
upon him, he gave utterance to that prayer that 
has come down through the ages, " Give me wisdom 
that I may govern my people aright. " My friends, 
there have been changes since then, and the prayer 
today would be a little different from the prayer in 
Solomon's day ; for, with the growth of intelligence, 
with the rise of the spirit of democracy, the defini- 
tion of leadership has undergone a change. 

The aristocratic definition of leadership is that 
the leader thinks for the people. The democratic 
definition of leadership is that the leader thinks 
with the people, and Lincoln illustrated the new 
definition of leadership. As the representative of 
the people, he acted for them, doing, as their repre- 
sentative, what they would have him to do; but 
Lincoln's hold upon the people was due to the fact 
that he never assumed to think for them. He was 
content to think with them on the questions that 
affected the government and their welfare. 

In college I learned that there were three kinds 
of government, the monarchy, the aristocracy and 



Page forty-five 

the democracy. I learned that the monarchy was 
the strongest, the aristocracy the wisest, and the 
democracy the most just. I have had some time 
to think upon this subject since I received my 
diploma but I still adhere to a part of that. I 
believe that the democracy is the most just but I 
do not believe that the aristocracy is the wisest or 
that the monarchy is the strongest. A govern- 
ment that draws upon the wisdom of all the people 
is wiser than the government that rests upon the 
wisdom of a few of the people, and a monarchy, 
while it may act more quickly upon a given point or 
subject, is not the strongest. I prefer to believe 
with the great historian Bancroft that the republic 
is in truth the strongest of governments because, 
disregarding the implements of terror, it dares to 
build its citadel in the hearts of men. The heart 
after all is the most secure foundation upon which 
a nation's strength can be built. Pericles, in his 
great funeral oration, described the greatness of his 
country and then he said : " It was for these, then, 
rather than to have that taken from them, to die 
fighting in its behalf, and that their survivors may 
well be willing to suffer for our country. " 



Page forty-six 

When a government is just and the people love 
it, they will die that its blessings may be transmit- 
ted to their children and their children's children. 
This idea of government, this democratic idea of 
government, is the growing idea. 

My friends, if anyone has ever doubted that the 
ideas of government which characterize our country 
are the growing ideas, let him but examine recent 
history. Within five years China, the sleeping 
giant of the Orient, has sent envoys throughout 
the world to secure information for the formation of 
a constitution. 

Within five years Russia, the synonym for des- 
potism, has been compelled to recognize the right 
of the people to a voice in their government, and 
you have seen a douma established there. It is 
not what we would like or what we would have in 
this country, but it is a long step in advance; and, 
my friends, no one can watch the struggles through 
which those people have passed, without believing 
that it is only a question of time when they are 
going to have constitutional government and free- 
dom of speech and freedom of the press and free- 
dom of conscience and universal education; and 
when this time comes, as come it will, Russia will 



Page forty-seven 

take her place among the great nations of the 
world ; for people who are willing to die for lib- 
erty as her people have died, have in them the 
material of which great nations are made. 

You may go through the nations of the world, 
and you will find that in every one there are issues 
upon which depend the further progress of demo- 
cratic institutions. 

Go into France, the democracy represented by 
our distinguished guest tonight, and you will find 
that while in their suffrage they have already 
reached their limit, while their government is al- 
ready responsive to the will of the people, they are 
practically working out their problems. They are 
increasing the intelligence of their people, adding 
to the number of schools, increasing the attendance 
at the schools, and what is also important they are 
seeking to increase the number of home owners and 
are doing it, believing that when a man owns his 
home he is a better citizen than if he is merely a 
tenant and can be thrown out at will by someone 
else. 

In Great Britain, where they have already solved 
so many problems, and where, in spite of their 
monarchial form, they recognize so large a power 



Page forty-eight 

in the people to direct their government, there is a 
growing sentiment against the exercise by the 
House of Lords of any power to thwart, finally, the 
will of the people expressed at the polls. 

And so you can take up every nation, and you 
will find the sentiment in favor of democracy 
spreading. You will find, everywhere, govern- 
ments becoming more popular. You will find, 
everywhere, the people getting a larger control of 
their own government; and, if it would not take me 
into partisan politics, I might easily show that in 
our own country we have no exception to the rule, 
but that back of all parties in this country there is 
a democratic spirit that is forcing, step by step, 
more complete control of the government by the 
people who live under the government. 

My friends, just one other thought in the devel- 
opment of this subject. There was a time when 
might meant right and when physical strength was 
the controlling factor in government. With in- 
creasing intelligence, the power of the muscle and 
the influence of the strong arm decreased and the 
influence of the brain increased. It was a step in 
advance, a great step in advance; but the brain is 
not the largest element in man, and following close 



Page forty-nine 

upon the supremacy of the mind above the arm, 
has come the supremacy of the heart over the 
brain. 

Carlyle, in his closing chapters on the French 
Revolution, presents the relation of these three fac- 
tors. He said that thought is stronger than artil- 
lery park, and moulds the world like soft clay and 
that back of thought is love; that there never was 
a great mind that did not have back of it a generous 
heart. 

And so, my friends, I believe that we are making 
progress in the direction of a larger heart control, 
and that the greatness of Lincoln, like the greatness 
of his prototype, Jefferson, was due more to his 
heart than to his head. His heart was large enough 
to take in all mankind, and he was one of the earlier 
apostles of the doctrine of human liberty that is 
spreading throughout the world. 

About fourteen years ago a great Frenchman, 
Dumas, wrote a letter in which he said that we 
were on the eve of a new era, when mankind was to 
be seized with a passion of love, and when men were 
to understand their relations to each other. Two 
years afterwards Tolstoi, in his secluded home in 

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Page fifty 

the heart of Russia, Tolstoi who has never been 
outside of the confines of his own country for more 
than fifty years, Tolstoi clad in the garb of the 
peasant, and living the life of the peasant and 
preaching out to all the world the philosophy that 
rests upon the doctrine, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as 
thyself, " Tolstoi read the letter of Dumas and 
gave it his endorsement. 

We see signs of it in this country and everywhere, 
and with that great doctrine of liberty we shall find 
the nations knit more closely together. We shall 
find our own people working more harmoniously 
together, and we shall find people asking, not 
" What can we do? " but " What ought we to do? " 
and giving to ethics a paramount place in the cal- 
culations of individuals and nations. 

My friends, Lincoln was a representative of the 
latest development of the art of government, for 
Lincoln rested his'hope and built his faith upon the 
hearts of men. 

I am glad that we live in this latter day when 
the might of the brute is disappearing, when the 
cunning of the brain is no longer commanding the 
highest praise, when the characteristics of the 



Page fifty-one 

heart are demanding a consideration that they have 
never demanded before ; and on this occasion, when 
we meet to speak the name of Lincoln, it is a fitting 
time to raise our hearts in gratitude, that he was 
one of the first and one of the greatest of those 
artists in the "Royal Art of Government " to 
recognize the heart's place in shaping the destiny 
of man and the history of a nation. 



Page fifty-two 



JUDGE HUMPHREY 

Introducing Senator Dolliver 

A score of years ago a new star appeared in the 
firmament of the Mississippi valley. The people of 
Iowa saw this man adorning the public forum and 
the sanctuaries of justice and they bade him go and 
grace somewhat the rougher walks of political life. 
They found him worthy to be the colleague of the 
late Senator Allison. Since that time his star has 
been ever in the ascendant and the nation recog- 
nizes the added strength and wisdom which he 
brings to that great deliberative body, the Senate 
of the United States. Always a welcome visitor to 
Illinois, where his voice on other occasions has been 
frequently heard, we give him special welcome to- 
night as one worthy to voice an estimate of the 
greatest American the country has ever produced. 

I have pleasure in presenting the distinguished 
orator and statesman, the Honorable, aye, the 
Honorable Jonathan P. Dolliver, senator from 
Iowa. 



Page fifty-three 



SENATOR DOLLIVER 

Our Heroic Age 

I find a very great pleasure in sitting down 
with you at these tables, spread with the lux- 
uries and the necessities of life. I thank my 
friend, the toastmaster, for the very kind ex- 
pression with which he has introduced me, al- 
though I am bound to say that I have a distinct 
impression that, without intending it, he has given 
me an advertisement that is likely to do me more 
harm than good, for I make no pretense whatever 
either as an orator or as a statesman. I am a plain 
country politician, of a kind very numerous here in 
Illinois, although I think I agree with you in believ- 
ing that there is mighty little difference between a 
politician and a statesman. 

I have had a little trouble to find out what I am 
expected to speak about in order to beguile the 
midnight dispositions of the patriots who remain 
around these banquet tables. While I have had a 
little difficulty to find out what I am expected to 



Page fifty-four 

talk about, I have had several intimations that 
there are some subjects that might be irritating if I 
introduced them on an occasion like this. It has been 
delicately suggested to me that the campaign in 
Illinois, (I do not mean the primary campaign, but 
the ordinary political campaign) is over, and that 
these tables are dedicated to an atmosphere of pure 
patriotism without any partisan bias; and I am 
mighty glad of it, because I have lived in the atmo- 
sphere of party politics so long, I have been com- 
pelled to talk politics so much myself, and what is 
even worse I have been compelled to listen to so 
many other people talking, that I have reached, 
so far as those matters are concerned, a point of 
saturation, resembling somewhat the case of the 
young lady who had spent the summer at Narra- 
gansett Pier. She said that she had eaten so many 
clams that she rose and fell with the tide. 

It is not that I have anything against it, but 
simply that, like everybody else, I have had enough 
of it for the time being. 

I have listened with an unalloyed pleasure to the 
magnificent speeches with which this banquet has 
been made famous and memorable in Illinois and, 
I believe, throughout the United States. I was 



Page fifty-five 

especially interested in the profound observations 
of the philosophy of government and of life which 
have been given to us by the distinguished states- 
man and orator who has just taken his seat, and I 
was glad to hear him. I regard him as an institu- 
tion in the United States. He has chosen the bet- 
ter part, and has given over his life to meditation 
upon the administration of the government of the 
United States and no man, in my judgment, has 
rendered a larger or a better service in the forma- 
tion of a public opinion in the interest of our in- 
stitutions than our distinguished orator and friend 
and guest. 

There are two little groups of people whose com- 
ing into this chamber have touched my heart. One 
of them sits yonder in the balcony, the Daughters 
of the American Revolution. There is one thing 
about them that the public ought to understand. 
We are here in our little way trying to preserve 
and helping to perpetuate the memory of Abraham 
Lincoln; but Abraham Lincoln needs none of our 
help to make his memory immortal in the ages of 
the world. These young women are doing a finer 
thing, even, than that. They are perpetuating the 
unknown heroism, the unrecorded service, of the 



Page fifty-tiz 

men who, in the foundation of our institutions gave 
their lives, with willing hearts, to the defense of 
public liberty. They do not ask, even, that a man 
should be regarded as a hero. If only he was wil- 
ling for the sacrifice, it is their business to hand his 
name, however lowly, to other generations. 

And yonder in the gallery sits a little group of 
veterans who, after all, made the services of Abra- 
ham Lincoln possible in the dark days of the civil 
war. 

We have heard from the lips of the English 
Ambassador that a great name, a great man, is the 
chief possession of a people; but there can be no 
great name, no great man, unless there is behind 
him a great cause and a great people. 

Abraham Lincoln illustrates the life of sixty 
years ago. We do well to hang up his picture. I 
have seen it in every city that I have passed 
through, in Washington in every window, in Pitts- 
burgh in every window, in Cincinnati and here at 
the old homestead in Springfield. We do well to 
teach our children what the life means, and to let 
that kindly benignant face shine from our walls, 



Page fifty-seven 

that the young people of the United States, coming 
to responsibility, may be educated in all the alle- 
giance of patriotism and of liberty. 

We have, in the United States, within the life- 
time of many who sit around these tables, a national 
experience which elevated the republic to a level 
never before known in the history of our institu- 
tions. There had been a dark period behind it 
when nobody knew whether the government of the 
United States was going to last another ten years 
or not. 

It is a curious thing that this government was 
eighty years old before it produced a statesman 
who could stand up, at the dinner table or anywhere 
else, and tell his countrymen that the institutions 
of America would last out their lifetime. Even 
our greatest statesmen were in the dark. Daniel 
Webster said, in his greatest speech, "God grant 
that upon my vision that curtain may not rise. " 
"Finally," said Henry Clay, " I implore, as the best 
blessing that Heaven can bestow upon me on earth, 
that if the direful and sad event of the dissolution 
of the nation shall happen, I may not be spared to 
behold the heart-rending spectacle. " 



Page fifty-eight 

These men, great as they were, in their day and 
time did not dare to trust themselves to look into 
the future. It remained for a later and, in my 
judgment, a better generation to view without 
despair the chaos of civil strife, to walk into it, to 
fight the way of the nation through it, to lift up a 
spotless flag above it and, in the midst of the flame 
and the smoke of battle, to create the nation of 
America. That was our heroic age, and out of it 
came forth our ideal heroes, Lincoln and the states- 
men who stood by his side; Grant and the great 
soldiers who obeyed his orders; and behind them 
both the countless hosts of that Grand Army of the 
Republic through whose illustrious sacrifice of 
blood our weary and heavy-laden centuries have 
been redeemed. 

You have built here a monument, strong and 
beautiful, which is to bear the name and perpetuate 
the service of Abraham Lincoln. We are about to 
build, at our capital yonder at Washington, a na- 
tional monument that will in some dim kind of way 
illustrate our opinion of the service of this man; 
and when we get it built we will not put upon it 
any image of his person. It will not need any such 
memorial for it will be, as Victor Hugo said of the 



Page fifty-nine 

column of Waterloo to be dedicated to the memory 
of the Duke of Wellington — it will bear up not the 
figure of a man, for it will be the statue of a people, 
the memorial of a great nation. 

And so his centennial has put into the hearts and 
into the minds of unnumbered millions this fame 
which has grown in this half century until it has 
become the chiefest possession of the American 
people, and the most precious heritage that will 
be passed on to the generations that are to come. 



Page sixty 



SENATOR CULLOM 

A Letter of Regret 

United States Senate, 

Washington, D. C, Feb. 6, 1909. 
Hon. J Otis Humphrey, President Lincoln Centen- 
nial Association, Springfield, III.: 
My Dear Judge — It is a matter of sincere regret 
to me that I am unable to be present at your great 
anniversary celebration of the birth of the immortal 
Lincoln and to welcome to my home city the am- 
bassadors of Great Britain and France and the 
distinguished guests who are to be with you. 

Abraham Lincoln, greatest of Americans, great- 
est of men, emancipator, martyr, his service to his 
country has not been equaled by any American 
citizen, not even by Washington. His name and 
life have been an inspiration to me from my earliest 
recollection. 

On this one hundredth anniversary of his birth 
the people, without regard to creed, color, condition 
or section, in all parts of this union which he saved, 



Page sixty-one 

are striving to do honor to his memory. No Amer- 
ican has ever before received such deserved uni- 
versal praise. Not only in his own country, but 
throughout the civilized world, Abraham Lincoln 
is regarded as one of the few, the very few, truly 
great men in history. His memory is as fresh 
today in the minds and hearts of the people as it 
was forty years ago, and the passing years only add 
to his fame and serve to give us a truer conception 
of his noble character. The events of his life, his 
words of wisdom, have been gathered together in 
countless volumes, to be treasured up and handed 
down to generations yet to come. 

I knew him intimately in Springfield ; I heard him 
utter his simple farewell to his friends and neigh- 
bors when he departed to assume a task greater 
than any President had been called upon to assume 
in our history; it was my sad duty to accompany 
his mortal remains from the capital of the nation 
to the capital of Illinois, and as I gazed upon his 
face the last time, I thanked God that it had been 
my privilege to know him as a friend, and I felt 
then, as I more fully realize now, that the good he 
had done would live through all the ages to bless 
the world. 



Page sizty-ttro 

Springfield, his only real home, the scene of his 
great political triumphs, was his fitting resting 
place. In the midst of this great continent his 
dust shall rest a sacred treasure to myriads who 
shall pilgrim to his shrine to kindle anew their zeal 
and patriotism. 

Again expressing regret that I cannot be with 
you to take part in honoring the memory of our 
greatest President on the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of his birth, and feeling sure that the Spring- 
field celebration will be the most notable of all, as 
it should be, I remain 

Sincerely yours, 

S. M. Cullom. 



Page sizly-three 



BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

A Letter of Regret 

Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 

February 9, 1909. 
Mr. James R. B. Van Cleave, Secretary Publicity 

Committee, Lincoln Centennial Association 

Springfield, III.: 

My Dear Sir — It is a matter of keen regret to me 
that, owing to a long standing promise to speak in 
New York on the occasion of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, I 
find myself unable to accept your generous invita- 
tion to speak in his home city on that day. There 
is no spot in America where it would have given 
me greater satisfaction to have spoken my word 
than in Springfield — the city that he loved and the 
city where his body rests. 

There are many lessons which can and will be 
drawn from the life of our great hero, but there is 
one above all others at this moment that I deem 



Page sixty-four 

fitting to call attention to on this occasion. Among 
other reasons, I do so because of recent occurrences 
in the city of Lincoln's adoption. 

When Lincoln freed my race there were four 
millions. Now there are ten millions. Naturally 
more and more this increase means that they will 
scatter themselves through the country, north as 
well as south. A large element already is in the 
north. If my race would honor the memory of 
Lincoln and exhibit their gratitude for what he did, 
it can do so in no more fitting manner than by put- 
ting into daily practice the lessons of his own life. 
Mr. Lincoln was a simple, humble man, yet a great 
man. Great men are always simple. No matter 
where members of my race reside, we should resolve 
from this day forward that we will lead sober, in- 
dustrious, frugal, moral lives, and that while being 
ambitious we shall at the same time be patient^ 
law-abiding and self-controlled as Lincoln was. 
These are the elements that will win success and 
respect, no matter where we live. Every member 
of my race who does not work, who leads an im- 
moral life, dishonors the memory and the name of 



Page sixty-five 

Lincoln. Every one, on the other hand, who leads 
a law-abiding, sober life is justifying the faith which 
the sainted Lincoln placed in us. 

In every part of this country I want to see my 
race live such high and useful lives that they will 
not be merely tolerated, but that they shall actu- 
ally be needed and wanted because of their use- 
fulness in the community. The loafer, the man 
who tries to live by his wits, is never wanted any- 
where. 

Many white people in the north who are now 
honoring the memory of Lincoln are coming into 
contact with the race Lincoln freed for the first 
time. I have spoken of the patience and self con- 
trol needed on the part of my race. With equal 
emphasis I wish to add that no man who hallows 
the name of Lincoln will inflict injustice upon the 
negro because he is a negro or because he is weak. 
Every act of injustice, of law-breaking, growing out 
of the presence of the negro, seeks to pull down the 
great temple of justice and law and order which he 
gave his life to make secure. Lawlessness that 
begins when a weak race is the victim grows by 
what it feeds upon and spreads until it includes all 

— 5 L C 



Page sizty-siz 

races. It is easy for a strong man or a strong race 
to kick down a weak man or a weak race. It is 
ignoble to kick down ; it is noble to lift up as Lincoln 
sought to do all through his life. Just in the degree 
that both races, while we are passing through this 
crucial period, exhibit the high qualities of self- 
control and liberality which Lincoln exhibited in 
his own life, will we show that in reality we love and 
honor his name, and both races will be lifted into 
a high atmosphere of service to each other. 
Yours truly, 

Booker T. Washington. 



Page sixty-seven 



CHARLES HENRY BUTLER 

Our Leader; a Poem 

Fair stretched the land, East, West, from sea to sea; 

North, South from Lakes to Gulf; we called it free. 

And, proudly in our ballads, oft had sung 

Of how our freedom we had bravely wrung 

From tyrant King; fair were its prospects too 

And bright; nor could the wealth the Indies knew, 

Even when fabled Kublai Khan was there, 

Nor yet Pactolus' golden tide, compare 

With boundless stream that, ever constant, poured 

Into the lap of industry its hoard 

Of treasure; as though forest, mine and field 

Each with the other vied the greatest wealth to yield. 

God-fearing too, the people of this land 
Their churches grandly reared on every hand 
And worshipped Him who taught us when we pray, 
"Thy Kingdom come upon this earth," to say. 

To its fair shores there came, across the sea, 

The weary peasant, yearning to be free 

From serfdom's toil; and there he sought, and found, 

The right to till, and call his own, the ground 

And fruit it yielded to his care. There came, 

Beside, the patriot burning with the shame 



Page siity-tight 

Of thought, in his own land not merit told 
But only rank, and noble birth, and gold; 
"While in the young republic of the West, 
He hoped, and found, true merit was the test. 

Surely than this no land more blessed could be, 
Surely in land like this all must be free ! 
Not so; in market place men bought and sold 
Their fellow-men, and bartered souls for gold; 
It matters not how blessed, how good, how fair 
Be land or people, if the curse is there 
Of slavery, it will cast its blight 
O'er all that elsewhere would be bright. 

Not over all the land this curse had spread, 

Not yet throughout the land was conscience dead; 

But still to blame is every one who tries 

Not to strike evil dead, but compromise 

With it; so, not upon a few, but all, 

The blame and burden of that curse must fall. 

Too late 'tis now to try to cast the blame 

On either side; no longer fan that flame 

Or further fuel feed; but let it die, 

And with it all the animosity 

That once so hotly burned. Is not this true — 

One did but what the other let it do; 

Till, past all bounds, the evil grew so much 

It held the country in its death-like clutch? 

How loose that clutch? How could the tide be stemmed, 
By which, not stemmed, the land were overwhelmed? 
All! many men weir brave to death, and tried 

To Loose those bonds and check that rising tide. 



Page sixty-nine 



Honor to all our brave we gladly pay, 

But more than all to him, who on this day 

Was born a century ago, and who, 

As leader unsurpassed, his people through 

The darksome valley of the shades of death 

Led back to light and life; and then, himself, 

Fell at the foot of the altar he had reared 

To Freedom's God, dead — but his name revered, 

And loved forever, as the most sublime 

Of patriot martyrs on the roll of time. 

Dark were the clouds that o'er the country hung, 
Wild were the threats that 'cross the line were flung, 
Men trembled, women wept, all were dismayed; 
And Peace, in our time, oh, Lord, some prayed, 
Hoping, in compromise, to find a way 
To limit, not to end, the plague; to stay 
Its further progress; as though slaves could be 
In part of land, while elsewhere all were free. 

Oh, for a leader! others prayed. God heard 

And answered ; from the West a voice that stirred 

The hearts of all was heard throughout the length 

And breadth of this whole land. Its tones of strength 

Proclaimed the voice of leader when he bade 

Them heed these words that could not be gainsaid : 

Not half for slave, and other half for free, 

Can this, nor yet another, country be; 

No house divided 'gainst itself can stand, 

And what is true of house is true of land. 

In withering tones he spoke of slaving toil 

That tilled, while others ate, the fruit of soil; 

Not by the sweat of other's brow shalt earn thy bread 



Page teventy 

But by thine own, the Holy Writ hath said. 

Truth ! And the people — sick of lies — replied 

"Our Leader!" — and he led them till he died. 

And still he leads us, for the truth ne'er dies, 

"Our Leader still!" Each honest heart replies. 

Behold his portrait, gaze upon his face, 

Seek not therein to find soft shades of grace; 

In rugged lines which in that face appear 

Sorrow there is and care, but not one trace of fear; 

And back of all — and in that eye, indeed — 

What wealth and depth of character we read ! 

Look where we will, not elsewhere shall we find 

Such courage, strength and truth with tenderness combined. 

His was the vision that so plainly saw 

Not only what all others saw — the flaw — 

But also that the flaw would surely spread 

Until the whole fabric would be dead, 

Unless the fearful, ugly thing were cut; 

— Nor cared how deep in flesh the knife were put, 

Tho' even close to heart of that which he most loved, 

If but the wicked spot could be removed — 

But oh, to him how deep the pain, that he 

The one to wield that almost fatal knife must be. 

His was the genius that knew how to act 
And when — yet so combined with skill and tact, 
And nameless charm of humor he was known 
To use so well in manner all his own — 
That through a crisis, such as ne'er before 
Had ever threatened State in peace or war, 
He guided it, and shaped its course so well, 
That it was saved at last; and, when he fell 



Page seventy-one 



Pierced by a bullet from assassin hand, 
Not one part only, but the whole wide land, 
Cursed the foul deed, and grieved that it had lost 
Him who to heal its wounds had done the most; 
His was the patience, that with faith combined, 
Enabled him in darkest hour to find 
Hope for the future, and that all would see 
At last the country — reunited — free. 

His faith was that which bade him call upon 
The Being most Divine — the God of Washington. 
He knew with that aid he would not fail 
And that without it he could not prevail. 

Yes, when nearly all was nearly o'er, 

And looking back on four long years of war, 

Could calmly say, with charity toward all 

And malice none, in words we all recall; 

That still the everlasting judgments of the Lord 

Through all the long resounding ages of the world, 

Whether three thousand years ago, or whether 

Rendered today, are true and righteous altogether. 

He came to earth and here his task fulfilled; 

He nobly did the work his Master willed 

Him here to do; and when he died 'twas known 

Earth's noblest spirit back to Heaven had flown. 

Though storied urn, nor animated bust 

The fleeting breath has ne'er recalled; though dust, 

When silent, honor's voice cannot provoke, 

Nor yet can soothing flattery invoke 

The dull, cold ear of death; still can we not 

Erect some monument upon some spot 



Page seventy-two 

That ever in the hearts of all, Our Leader great 

Will honor, and his fame perpetuate; 

Once on a field that red with patriot blood 

A year before that time had run, he stood 

And uttered to the throng assembled there 

Those words, with which no other words compare 

Not uttered by a voice divine. He said, 

While dedicating to the noble dead 

The spot whereon they died: "It is too late 

For us to hallow, or to consecrate 

This field; that has been done; it is for us — 

The living — to be dedicated here, and thus 

To make the high resolve that those who gave 

Devotion's fullest measure here to save 

The Nation's life shall not in vain have died." 

Cannot that thought to him be now applied? 

If to Our Leader we would now erect 

A fitting monument, let each select 

In his own heart, some high resolve to make, 

And then fulfill it for that leader's sake; 

And, if in such a monument, each one 

Of us, today, would set a single stone, 

'Twould higher be, more stately and more grand 

Than any ever built in any land 

To any hero; it would nobly rise 

Until its lofty apex reached the skies, 

And to Our Leader would the message bring, 

That while within our hearts his words still ring, 

This Nation under God shall have new birth 

Of freedom; nor shall perish from the earth 

This Government that of the people, by 

And for the people is; Thus let us try 



Page seventy-three 



To prove — nor count the cost of time or pain — 
The noblest dead shall not have died in vain. 
Ask ye what that resolve shall be? Look right 
Or left, for all the fields are harvest white. 

Are there no slaves to be set free today? 
No great remaining tasks to which we may 
Now dedicate ourselves? may we not help to free 
This country from those forms of slavery 
That know no color line — the greed of wealth 
And lust for power — aggrandizement of self — 
That hold in thraldom many of our best 
And steep in envy nearly all the rest? 

Fairer and brighter is this land today 
Than it has ever been before ; and may 
It ever fairer, better, brighter grow. 
Surely no land more blest than this, below 
Heaven's high dome can ever be. And so 
As would Our Leader let us bravely strike 
These shackles off; and strike them not alone 
From others' limbs; but strike them from our own. 

Are there no other slaves who sorely need 

Some one to loose their bonds? There are, indeed. 

Do ye not hear the children's bitter cry 

As in the mills and mines their tasks they ply? 

They, who should cheer the household through the day 

Are taught to work before they learn to play. 

Shame on the land of which it may be said 

That parents eat, while children earn, the bread. 



Page seventy-four 

If he were here would not Our Leader be 

In foremost rank to set the children free, 

And onward lead us in the great crusade 

Of right 'gainst wrong which ever should be made? 

Then let us make them for Our Leader's sake. 

What nobler tasks can our devotion claim 

Than these? Then let us do them in his name. 



Page seventy-five 



AT THE TABERNACLE 

At 2:30 in the afternoon an audience of 10,000 
people were assembled at the Tabernacle where 
addresses were delivered by Messrs. Jusserand, 
Bryce, Dolliver and Bryan. Governor Deneen 
presided at the meeting. The addresses together 
with the introductory remarks of the Governor 
are given on the following pages. 



Page $eventy-six 



GOVERNOR DENEEN 

Introducing the French Ambassador 

We are met to celebrate the one hundredth 
anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. 
Throughout our own land and in many parts of the 
world men are gathered together at this moment 
to pay a tribute to his memory. Wherever they 
have gathered, their thoughts will turn to our 
state and this spot, which have been glorified by 
his life and death. 

We are exceedingly fortunate, in this his home, 
to have with us today distinguished representa- 
tives from far European countries, and two dis- 
tinguished sons of our native land. The Com- 
mittee had arranged for the ambassadors from 
France and from Great Britain to speak at the 
banquet tonight but our people were so anxious 
to have the opportunity to meet them and hear 
them, and to show the high respect and great 
love which is had here for their countries, that 
they have consented to speak briefly this afternoon ; 



Page seventy-seven 

and it is indeed a great pleasure to me to have 
the honor to introduce to you a diplomat, author 
and statesman, His Excellency, the Ambassador 
from France to the United States, the Honorable 
J. J. Jusserand. 



Page seventy-tight 



THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR 

France's Esteem For Lincoln 

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen — 
It is not only a great but unexpected honor to 
address you today. I am very proud to be asked, 
and very happy to address the citizens of this 
city of Springfield, where the mind of the great 
man whose memory we delight to honor today, 
took its definite shape. 

It was in Springfield that Lincoln received his 
first lessons in statesmanship, with what results all 
the world knows. In this city, which owes much 
to Lincoln, as it owes to him the honor of being 
the capital of this great state, that the backwoods- 
man of years before became the citizen who was 
to be the leader of men, and who was to be the 
second grandest President of the United States, 
the one who holds in the heart of his compatriots 
the same place as George Washington. 

These two great men were related in their life- 
work. One created the United States and the 



Page seventy-nine 

other prevented their disruption. When Wash- 
ington fought for his great task, France stood 
by him as a friend. When Lincoln fought, you 
may recall that if France did not send an army, 
there was at least, under the United States flag, 
one regiment that was French, that was led by 
French officers. That was the 55th New York, 
which wore the red trousers of the French army, 
and went to Washington singing the Marseillaise. 
They went to camp and received the flag they 
were to carry through the battles and through 
the war, from Mr. Lincoln, himself. Lincoln came, 
himself, to present the flag and he had asked the 
regiment to select their date. They selected a 
date that was dear to them, and Lincoln came, 
and to the song of Marseillaise he presented the 
flag. A man who had been a general in the French 
army and who was a French citizen, proposed a 
toast to the nation. He drank to the nation and 
said, "To the Union to be maintained and to be 
re-established, but not so soon but that the 55th 
may have time to show how much they care for 
it. " Lincoln himself replied, " I drink to the 55th 



Page eighty 

and to the Union, and since the Union cannot, 
apparently, be re-established until the 55th has 
had its battle, I drink a speedy battle to the 55th. " 

That flag was carried through the war and ended 
gloriously with the regiment, itself, in that awful 
day at Fredericksburg. At Fredericksburg only 
the stem was left. When the battle was over 
the regiment was reduced to two hundred and ten 
men. It was melted into the very sod, itself! 
That was the end of the regiment, not of the war. 
What the end of the war was you know. Lincoln 
too, met his fate, the fate of a hero such as he; 
and now his glory fills the world, and everywhere 
there is only one feeling for him. 

In France that feeling was peculiarly keen and 
great because, in those days, all the liberal French- 
men were anxious about what took place in Amer- 
ica. They all felt that if the American Republic 
split into two, we had very little chance, in France, 
ever to have a republic, ourselves. So we followed 
with beating hearts what happened to Lincoln 
.•md prayed with all our earnestness of soul for 
the re-establishment of that Union which we had 
loved from its first days. 



Page eighty-one 

In Lincoln's day, it was long before he took 
his rightful place, among the great men of the 
United States. He had many doubters. There 
were many scoffers, but now not one is left. Why 
that great difference? That great difference has 
been explained admirably by another great Amer- 
ican, by Emerson, who said, "You cannot see 
the mountain near." 



— 6 L C 



Page eighty-two 



GOVERNOR DENEEN 

Introducing the English Ambassador 

Again it is my pleasure to introduce to you a 
scholar, author, diplomat, statesman, expounder 
of the American Constitution, and interpreter of 
the spirit of the American commonwealth, His 
Excellency, the Ambassador from Great Britain 
to the United States. 



Page eighty-three 



THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR 

Lincoln as One of the People 

Mr. Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen, Cit- 
izens of Abraham Lincoln's Own City — I am 
come to say a very few words to you, in order 
that I may bear to you the greetings of England, 
her sympathy with you on this day, and ex- 
pression of the reverence and honor in which 
she holds, as you hold, the memory of your im- 
mortal President. 

Four days ago I had the privilege of delivering 
to the President of the United States a message 
of sympathy and a tribute of admiration from 
King Edward the Seventh and now I want to 
renew and repeat the substance of that message 
to you, the people of Springfield. 

Ladies and gentlemen, my friend and colleague, 
the French Ambassador, has just, with perfect 
truth, compared the position which Abraham 
Lincoln holds in your history with that which 
was held by George Washington. 



Page eighty-four 

At two great crises of the fate of this republic, 
Providence gave you two men specially fitted to 
be leaders and inspirers of the nation. George 
Washington was not only a great leader in war, 
but was a wise guide in peace, and it was the 
impression of his upright and lofty character that 
held your people together in their hour of need. 

When the second great struggle in which the 
fortunes of your republic were involved came upon 
you, and the conflict between slavery and its ex- 
tension, and freedom and its preservation, broke 
like a storm upon you, you found in Abraham 
Lincoln the one man who was fitted to meet and 
to grapple with that awful crisis. I remember 
how in England those of us who sympathized with 
the cause of the north, as did the great majority 
of the English people, did so because we felt it 
was the cause of humanity and freedom. 

I remember how we thought and felt more and 
more as months and years passed, that Abraham 
Lincoln was the man whom you needed, because 
he possessed what was the supreme and essential 
gift that the country required. He was a man 
whom tin' people could trust, because he was the 



Page eighty-five 

man who sprung, himself, from the people and 
understood the people as perhaps no one had ever 
so thoroughly done before. 

It very soon became certain to us who were 
watching that struggle from the shores of Europe 
that it could only end in the preservation of the 
Union; for the people of the north and the west 
were themselves united and determined to main- 
tain the Union, and that the only chance for those 
who were trying to divide the Union would have 
been if there had been faltering and wavering in 
the minds of the northern and western people. 
For a time it seemed uncertain whether there 
might not be that faltering and that wavering, 
but we saw that there was in your President a 
man of steadfast will and lofty character, a man 
whom no reverses could affect and no charges 
or accusations could turn from his path; and we 
saw that more and more the heart of the people 
went out to him, because they felt that he was the 
true interpreter of their minds. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the one essential thing 
at that moment was that the people should have 



Page eighty-six 

someone to hold them together. Lincoln held 
them together. He held them together because 
he understood how they felt. 

He was a man sprung from among themselves 
who had come to know the minds and thoughts 
of the people by living among them as no President 
had ever done before; and when this crisis came 
he was the true interpreter to himself of the will 
and thoughts and hopes of the whole nation, and 
the people trusted him. They trusted him be- 
cause they knew that he understood them. They 
trusted him because they knew that he was one 
of themselves, who was not apart from them, who 
was not looking down on them, who was not 
trying to study them like distant objects, but 
who was one of themselves and felt as each of 
them felt, himself. That was his greatness. That 
was what fitted him to be the man for the moment. 
He embodied all that was best and highest in 
people's minds. His life is far more eloquent than 
any words. Nothing that we can say or do can 
add to his glory. One of our own poets has said, 
In an ode which I read the other day, speaking 
of him: 



Page eighty-seven 

" For there are lives too large in simple truth, 
For aught to limit, or knowledge to gauge, 

And there are men so near to God's own roof 
They are the better angels of their age. " 

Lincoln's true memorial is to be found in the 
legacy of greatness he has given us. You have 
erected a monument to him here, but the whole 
United States are his monument, because it is 
owing to him that the United States still remain 
one and indivisible. 

He was one of those who are a perpetual glory, 
not merely to the state which sent him to the 
presidential chair, not merely to the nation which 
owned him as its wise guide and leader, but also 
to humanity, because he was one of those in whom 
the love of humanity, the love of justice and the 
love of freedom burn with an unquenchable flame. 

Ladies and gentlemen, be thankful that in your 
hour of need Providence gave you such a man, 
and hold his memory in honor forever. 



Page eighty-eight 



GOVERNOR DENEEN 

Introducing Senator Dolliver 

It is my pleasure to present to you next the 
gifted and eloquent son of our neighboring state, 
the Honorable Jonathan P. Dolliver, United States 
Senator of Iowa. 



Page eighty-nine 



SENATOR DOLLIVER 

Lincoln, the Champion of Equal Rights 

Ladies and Gentlemen — It is a very great 
pleasure to me to have the chance of partici- 
pating with you in this celebration, and I share with 
you the gratification that the occasion is given 
more than a national significance by the presence 
and words here of the ambassador of that nation 
which befriended our national infancy, and has 
been our friend ever since the foundation of this 
republic; and by the presence here and helpful 
word of that man who has interpreted our insti- 
tutions to the English speaking world — "Pro- 
fessor Bryce, "aswe love to call him, Ambassador 
not alone of the English king and the English 
government but of the English people to the people 
of the United States. 

The memory which we are trying to celebrate 
today is too great for any political party, too 
great to be the heritage of a single nation, too 
great to be absorbed in the renown of any one 



Page ninety 

century. The ministry of his life was to all par- 
ties, to all nations and to all generations of men. 

Yet there is a sense in which it belongs to the 
American people and a sense still more sacred 
in which it belongs to you of Illinois and to the 
city of Springfield, where his life was lived and 
where his body lies buried. It is for you and 
your children to care for his fame and to keep 
his faith. 

Within the last half century, this old neighbor 
of yours, once derided, once despised, once mis- 
understood and maligned, has been lifted up into 
the light of universal history where all men and 
all generations of men may see him and make 
out, if they can, what manner of man he was. 

His life in this world was a very short one, less 
than three score years, only ten of them visible 
above the level of these prairies, yet into that 
brief space were crowded events so stupendous 
in their ultimate significance that we cannot read 
the volume which records them without a strange 
feeling coming over us that maybe, after all, we 
are not reading about a man, but about some 



Page ninety-one 

sublime automatic figure in the hands of the infin- 
ite powers, being used to help and to bless the 
human race. 

If we are troubled because we do not under- 
stand his life we ought to be encouraged because 
no previous generation of our people, not even 
that among which he lived, was able to understand 
him. 

While he lived the air was full of speculation 
about his purposes and the plans for their execution 
and until this day men are still guessing about his 
education, his religion, his faculties, and the in- 
tellectual account from which he drew the re- 
sources which always seemed equal to his task. 

There are some who claim that he was a great 
lawyer. I do not believe that he was anything 
of the kind. It is true that he mastered, though 
not without difficulty, the principles of the common 
law, and it is also certain that his mind was so 
normal and complete that he did not require a 
commentary nor a copy of the "Madison papers," 
thumb-marked by the doubts and fears of three 
generations, to understand that the men who made 
the constitution of the United States were build- 
ing for eternity. But he practiced law without 



Page ninety-two 

a library, and those who practiced with him have 
said that he was of no account in a lawsuit unless 
he knew the right was on his side. 

It went against his intellectual as well as his 
moral grain to adopt the epigram of Lord Bacon 
that it is impossible to tell whether a case be good 
or bad until a jury has brought in its verdict. 

The old judicial circuit about Springfield where 
he practiced law, where he knew everybody by 
their first name, and everybody liked to hear him 
talk as they sat together in the village tavern after 
the day's work was done, undoubtedly did much 
for him in many ways. 

But the great lawyers who are present in this 
assembly today will bear me witness that a man 
who habitually gives his advice away for nothing, 
who has not the foresight to ask for a retainer, 
nor the energy to collect a fee after he has earned 
it, whatever other gifts and graces he may have, 
is not by nature cut out for a lawyer. 

I have talked with a good many of the older 
men who used to practice with him, and from 
what they have said to me, I think that the notion 
was even then slowly forming in his mind that he 
held a brief, with power of attorney from on High, 



Page ninety-three 

for the un-numbered millions of his fellowmen, 
and was only loitering about the county seats of 
Illinois until the case came on for trial. 

You are to hear in a few moments one of the 
most eloquent orators who ever spoke the English 
tongue talk of "Lincoln as an orator;" but if he 
was such, the standards of the schools, ancient 
and modern, will have to be thrown away. Per- 
haps they ought to be, and when they are, this 
curious circuit-rider of the law, refreshing his com- 
panions with wit and wisdom from the well of 
English undefiled; this champion of civil liberty, 
confuting Douglas with a remorseless logic cast 
in phrases rich with the proverbial homely litera- 
ture of our language; this advocate of the people 
standing head and shoulders above his brethren, 
stating their cause at the bar of history in sen- 
tences so simple that a child can follow them, 
such a one, surely, will not be denied a place in 
the company of the masters who have added some- 
thing to the triumphs of our mother tongue. 

He was dissatisfied with his modest address at 
Gettysburg, read awkwardly from poorly written 
manuscript. He turned to Edward Everett and 
told him that his masterly oration was the best 



Page ninety-jour 

thing he had ever heard; but Mr. Everett did not 
need a minute for reflection to make him discern 
that that little piece of crumpled paper which 
the President held in his unsteady hand that day 
would be preserved from generation to generation, 
after his own laborious utterances had been for- 
gotten. The old school of oratory and the new 
met that day on the rude platform under the trees 
among the graves, and congratulated each other. 
They haven't met very often since, for both of 
them have been pushed aside to make room for the 
declaimer, the essayist, the statisticians and the 
other peddlers of intellectual wares who have de- 
scended like a swarm upon all human deliberations. 
There are some who claim that Lincoln was a 
great statesman. If by that they mean that he 
was better informed than his contemporaries in 
the administrative technicalities of our govern- 
ment, or that he was wiser than his day in the 
creed of the party in whose fellowship he passed 
his earlier years, there is very little evidence of 
that at all. The most that can be said is that he 
clung to the fortunes of the old Whig leadership 
through evil as well as good report and that he 
stumped the county and afterward the state; but 



Page ninety-five 

the speeches which he made neither he nor any- 
body else thought it important to preserve. He 
had a very simple political faith, short and to the 
point. "I am in favor/' said he, "of a national 
bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement 
system and a high protective tariff." But while 
he followed Henry Clay nearly all his lifetime, 
more like a lover than a disciple, yet when that 
great popular hero died and Mr. Lincoln was 
called upon to make an address upon the occasion 
of his funeral in your old State House, he passed 
over without a word the whole creed of the party 
faith, and gave his entire time to that love of liberty 
and that devotion to the Union which shone even 
to the end in the superb career of Henry Clay. 

Of course he was a statesman; but when you 
have described him as a statesman, whatever 
adjectives you use, you have opened no secret 
of his biography. You have rather marred, it 
seems to me, the epic grandeur of the drama in 
which he moved. Of course he was a great states- 
man. Exactly so, Saul of Tarsus, setting out from 
Damascus, became a great man. Exactly so, 
Columbus, inheriting a taste for the sea, devel- 
oped gradually into a mariner of high repute. 



Page ninety-sit 

There are some who have made a study more 
or less profound, of the archives of the rebellion, 
who have made out of Mr. Lincoln a great military 
genius, better able than his generals to order the 
movement of the armies under his command. In 
my humble opinion there is hardly any evidence 
of that. He was driven into the war department 
by the exigency of the times, and if he towered 
above the ill-fitting uniforms which made their 
way through one influence and another to posi- 
tions of brief command during the first campaigns 
of the civil war, there is no very high praise in 
that after all. 

But there is one thing about him that I have 
always been interested in. He comprehended the 
size of the undertaking which the nation had on 
hand and he kept looking until his eyes were 
weary for somebody who could master the whole 
situation and get out of the army what he knew 
was in it. It broke his heart to see its efforts 
scattered and thrown away by quarrels among its 
officers, endless in number, and unintelligible for 
the most part to the outside world. When he 
passed the command of the army of the Potomac 
over to General Hooker, he did it in terms of 



Page ninety-seven 

reprimand and admonition which read like a father's 
last warning to a wayward son. He told him 
that he had wronged his country and wronged 
his fellow officers, and recalled General Hooker's 
insubordinate suggestion that the army and the 
country both needed a dictator. Mr. Lincoln re- 
minded him that only generals who won victories 
have ever been known to set up dictatorships; 
and then with a humor grim as death he told him 
to go on and win military success and he would 
take all the chances of the dictatorship, himself. 

If General Hooker did not tear up his commission 
when he got that letter, it only shows that he was 
brave enough to stand upon his naked back the 
lash of the simple truth. 

All this time the President had his eye on a 
man from the West who appeared to be doing 
a fairly good military business down in Tennessee, 
a copious worker and a copious thinker, but a 
very meager writer, as Mr. Lincoln afterward de- 
scribed him in a telegram to Burnside. He liked 
this man. Especially he liked the fact that in 
his plan the advertisement and the event seemed 
to have some relation to each other. He liked 



— 7 L C 



Page ninety-eight 

him also because he never "regretted to report;" 
and so after Vicksburg had fallen, after the tide 
of the rebellion had been swept back from the 
borders of Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Presi- 
dent wrote two letters, one to General Meade, 
holding him to a stern account for his failure to 
follow up the victory at Gettysburg, and the other 
to Ulysses S. Grant, ordering him to report at 
Washington for duty. The letter to General Meade 
was never sent. You will find it resting quietly 
in the collection of the writings of Lincoln by Mr. 
Nicolay, all the fires of its mighty wrath long 
since gone out, but General Grant managed to get 
his; and from that hour no more military orders 
from the White House ; no more suggestions about 
the movement of the army; no more orders to 
advance. He left it all to him. He did not ask 
the general to tell him what his plans were. He left 
it all to him; and as the plan of the great captain 
began to unfold, gradually, Mr. Lincoln dispatched 
from the White House a telegram to the head- 
quarters in Virginia in these words, "I begin to 
see it. You will succeed. God bless you all. A. 
Lincoln." 



Page ninety-nine 

And so these two, each adding something to 
the other's fame, go down in history together, 
God's blessing falling like a benediction upon the 
memory of both. 

While Mr. Lincoln lived, even the great men 
that were nearest to him did not seem to enjoy 
the pleasure of his acquaintance. His lonely iso- 
lation, even among the advisors whom he chose 
to sit in council with him in the administration 
of the government, has always seemed pathetic; 
but the letters and papers which have come to 
light as one by one the actors in those great scenes 
have passed from the stage, reveal a situation 
which throws the light of comedy upon the sorrow- 
ful experience through which he passed. I reckon 
that among the greatest intellects our institutions 
have nurtured was William H. Seward, of New 
York, the great Secretary of State; and yet the 
record recently dug up shows that he spent nearly 
all his time pestering Mr. Lincoln with contradic- 
tory pieces of advice, and that he finally prepared 
a memorandum in his own handwriting, telling 
what he thought ought to be done, and ending by 
an accommodating proposal to take the responsi- 
bility of the administration off Mr. Lincoln's hands. 



Page one hundred 

I suppose that Salmon P. Chase was one of the 
greatest men we have ever had in the United 
States ; but if you will pick up the current number 
of the Scribner's Magazine, you will find there 
some very curious letters from Mr. Chase, letters 
that I would be the last man to use for the purpose 
of belittling him; but I rather like to see them, 
because it enables us to interpret the size of the 
man who was standing by his side. "He never 
consults me. He holds no cabinet meetings, " 
said this full grown minister of finance, prattling 
like a child. 

After the Battle of Bull Run, even so incor- 
ruptible a patriot as Edwin M. Stanton, known 
in after years as the organizer of victory, wrote 
a letter which you will find in the life of James 
Buchanan, to the ex-President then quietly resid- 
ing at his country estate near Washington, at 
Wheatland, in Pennsylvania, a letter filled with 
obloquy and contempt for Mr. Lincoln. He said, 
speaking of the defeat at Bull Run, that it was 
an unnecessary catastrophe. 

"The imbecility of the administration, " he said, 
"culminated in that catastrophe; and irretrievable 
misfortune and national disgrace never to be for- 



Page one hundred one 

gotten are to be added to the ruin of peaceful 
pursuits and national bankruptcy as the result 
of Lincoln's 'running the machine' for five full 
months. " 

From the sanctum of the old Tribune, where 
for a generation Horace Greeley had dominated 
the intellectual life of the people as no American 
editor has done before or since his day, there 
came to the White House a curious letter, a maud- 
lin mixture of enterprise and despair; a despair 
which after seven sleepless nights had given up 
the fight; an enterprise characteristic of modern 
journalism, asking for inside information of the 
hour of the surrender that was obviously near at 
hand. "You are not considered a very great 
man," said Mr. Greeley, in that letter, for the 
president's eye alone. 

Who is this, sitting on an old sofa in the public 
offices of the White House after the battle of Bull 
Run, talking, with quaint anecdotes and humor- 
ous commentaries, with officers and soldiers and 
civilians and scattered congressmen, who poured 
across the Long Bridge from the first battlefield 
of the rebellion to tell their tale of woe to the only 
man in Washington who had sense enough left 



Page one hundred two 

to appreciate it or patience enough left to listen 
to it? Is it the log cabin student, learning to 
read and write by the light of the kitchen fire in 
the woods of Indiana? It is he. Can it be the 
adventurous voyager of the Mississippi, inventing 
ideas for lifting flat boats over the riffles which 
impeded his journey, and at the same time medi- 
tating ideas broad as the free skies, for lifting 
nations out of barbarism, as he traced the divine 
image in the faces of men and women chained 
together in the auction block of the slave market 
at New Orleans? It is he. 

Can it be the awkward farm hand of the Sanga- 
mon, who covered his bare feet in the fresh dirt 
which his plow had turned up to keep them from 
getting sunburned, while he sat down at the end of 
the furrow to rest his team and to regale himself 
with a few more pages of worn volumes borrowed 
from the neighbors? It is he. Can it be the country 
lawyer who rode on horseback from county seat 
to county seat, with nothing in his saddlebags 
except a clean shirt and the code of Illinois, to 
try his cases and to air his views in the cheerful 
company that always gathered around the stove 
in the tavern at the county seat? It is he. 



Page one hundred three 

Is it the daring debater, blazing out for a moment 
with the momentous warning, "A house divided 
against itself cannot stand," then falling back 
within the defenses of the Constitution, in order 
that the cause of liberty, already hindered by the 
folly of its friends, might not become an outlaw 
in the land? It is he. 

Is it the weary traveller, setting out from Spring- 
field on his last journey from home, asking anxious 
neighbors who came to the depot to see him off, 
to remember him in their prayers, and talking to 
them in sad and mystical language about One who 
could go with him and remain with them, and be 
everywhere for good; It is he. 

They said that he jested, and laughed in a weird 
way, and told objectionable anecdotes that night, 
sitting on the old sofa in the public offices of the 
White House. They started ugly reports about 
him, and the comic newspapers of London and 
New York made cruel pictures of him, pictures 
of his big, handsome hands that were about to be 
stretched out to save the civilization of the world, 
and his overgrown feet, feet that for four torn and 
bleeding years were not too weary in the service 
of mankind. They said that his clothes did not 



Page one hundred four 

fit him, that when he sat down he tangled up his 
long legs in an ungainly fashion, that he was 
awkward and uncouth in his appearance. 

They began to wonder whether this being a 
backwoodsman was really a recommendation for 
President of the United States, and some of them 
began to talk about the grace of courtly manners 
which had been brought home from St. James. 

Little did they dream that the rude cabin where 
his father lived the night he was born, yonder on 
the edge of the hill country in Kentucky, would 
be transfigured in the tender imagination of the 
people until it became a mansion more stately 
than the White House, a palace more royal than 
all the palaces of the earth. It did not shelter 
the childhood of a king, but there is in this world 
one thing at least more royal than a king — it 
is a man. 

They said that he jested and acted unconcerned 
as he looked at people through eyes that moved 
slowly from one to another in the crowd. They 
did not know him. If they had known him they 
might have seen that he was not looking at the 
crowd at all — that his immortal spirit was girding 
for its ordeal. And if he laughed, how could they 



Page one hundred five 

be sure that he did not hear cheerful voices from 
above? For had he not read in an old book that 
He who sitteth in the Heavens sometimes looks 
down with laughter and derision upon the impotent 
plans of men to turn aside the everlasting pur- 
poses of God? 

It took his countrymen the full four years to 
find out Abraham Lincoln. By the light of the 
camp fires of victorious armies they learned to 
see the outline of his gigantic figure, to comprehend 
in part at least the dignity of his character, and 
to assess at its full value the integrity of his con- 
science; and when at length they followed his 
body back to Springfield and looked for the last 
time upon his worn and wrinkled face, through 
their tears they saw him exalted above all thrones 
in the gratitude and the affection of the world. 

We have been accustomed to think of the civil 
war in the United States as an affair of armies, 
for we come of a fighting race, and our military 
instinct needs very little encouragement — some 
think none at all — but it requires no very deep 
insight into the hidden things of history, to see 
that this conflict was not waged altogether on 
fields of battle nor under the walls of besieged 



Page one hundred six 

cities; and that fact makes Abraham Lincoln 
greater than all his generals, greater than all his 
admirals, greater than all the armies and all the 
navies that responded to his proclamation. 

He stands apart because he bore the ark of the 
covenant of our institutions. He was not making 
his own fight, nor even the fight of his own country 
or of the passing generation. The stars in their 
courses had enlisted with him. He had a treaty 
never submitted to the Senate, which made him 
the ally of the Lord of Hosts, with infinite rein- 
forcements at his call; and so the battle he was in 
was not in the woods around the old church at 
Shiloh nor in the wilderness of Virginia. He was 
hand in hand with an insurrection older than the 
slave power in America, a rebellion old as human 
voracity and human greed, that age after age 
had filled this earth with oppression and wrong, 
denied the rights of man and made the history 
of the world, in the language of the historian 
Gibbon, a dull recital of the crimes and follies and 
misfortunes of the human race. And so he was 
caught up like Hczekiah, prophet of Israel, and 
brought to the east gate of the Lord's house, and 
when he heard it said unto him, "Son of man, 



Page one hundred, seven 

these are the men who devise mischief/' he under- 
stood what the vision meant, for he had touched 
human life in such lowly fashion, living a humbler 
life than any man ever lived in this world, except 
our incarnate Lord who had not even where to lay 
his head, he had lived such a life that he knew 
instinctively what this great, endless struggle of 
our poor, fallen humanity is and how far the 
nation had fallen away from its duty and its 
opportunity. 

All his life there had dwelt in his recollection 
a little sentence from an historic document which 
had been carelessly passed along from one Fourth 
of July celebration to another, for nearly eighty 
years, "All men are created equal." To Abra- 
ham Lincoln that sounded strangely like an answer 
to a question propounded by the oldest of the 
Hebrew sages, " If I despise the cause of my man 
servant or my maid servant when he contendeth 
with me, what shall I do when God riseth up? 
Did not He that made me make him?" A stra- 
tegic question that had to be answered aright be- 
fore democracy or any other form of civil liberty 
could make any headway in the world. 



Page one hundred eight 

He knew that that sentence had not been in- 
spired on the front porch of a slave plantation in 
Virginia. He understood that when brave men 
take their lives in their hands they forget time 
and place and are likely, when they are laying 
the foundation of their nations, to tell the truth lest 
the heavens fall. With a sublime faith, shared 
within the limits of their light by millions, he 
believed that sentence. He had tested the depth 
of it till his plummet touched the foundation of 
the earth. From his youth that simple saying 
had been ringing in his ears : " All men are created 
equal." It was the answer of the eighteenth 
century of Christ to all the dim milleniums that 
were before Him; yet he had heard it ridiculed, 
narrowed down to nothing and explained away. 
And with those millions sharing his faith within 
the limits of their light, he understood that sen- 
tence and came to its defense. 

With one stroke he brushed away all the wretched 
sophistry of partisan expediency in American poli- 
tics and rescued the handwriting of Thomas Jef- 
ferson from obloquy and neglect. 

"I think," he said, "that the authors of that 
notable instrument intended to include all men. 



Page one hundred nine 

But they did not intend to declare all men equal 
in all respects. They did not mean to say that 
all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral de- 
velopment, or social capacity. They defined, 
with tolerable distinctness, in which respects they 
did consider all men created equal — equal with 
certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This they 
said and this they meant. They did not mean 
to assert the obvious untruth that all men were 
then actually enjoying that equality, nor that 
they were about to confer it immediately upon 
them, because they knew that they had no power 
to confer such a boon. They meant simply to 
declare the right, so that the enforcement of it 
should follow as fast as circumstances would 
permit. 

"They meant simply to set up a standard maxim 
of free society, which should be everywhere famil- 
iarized by the people, always reverenced, constantly 
looked to, constantly labored for, and even 
though never perfectly attained, constantly ap- 
proximated; thereby constantly spreading and 



Page on* hundred ten 

deepening its influence and augmenting the value 
and happiness of life to all people, of all colors, 
every where. " 

That was the message of Abraham Lincoln to 
the nations of the world and to the ages of the 
world's history; and for fear somebody in the future 
might say that that was a mere flourish of a joint 
debate with Mr. Douglas, when he went to the 
capital for his inauguration, he asked them to 
stop the train at Philadelphia, and so it is said 
that he went alone, a few friends only following 
him up the narrow street, until he came to the 
old Hall of Independence, where our fathers put 
their names down to the sublime documents which 
underlie our institutions, and standing there, by 
the very desk where their names were signed, he 
lifted his big hand up, and added his pledge to 
theirs that he would defend these propositions 
with his life. 

Here is the summit from which your old neigh- 
bor looked down on the whole world! Here is 
the spiritual height from which he was able to 
forecast the doom, not only of African slavery in 
the United States, but of all slaveries, all despot- 



Page one hundred eleven 

isms, all conspiracies with avarice and greed to 
oppress and wrong the children of God, living in 
God's world! 

Here is the mountain top from which he sent 
down his great message to mankind: 

"This is essentially a people's contest; on the 
side of the Union, a struggle to maintain in the 
world that form and substance of government 
the leading object of which is to elevate the con- 
dition of men, to lift artificial weights from 
shoulders; to clear the path of laudable pursuit 
for all and to afford all an unfettered start and a 
fair chance in the race of life." 

Thanks be unto God the war for the Union 
ended as it did — that we are not enemies but 
friends, with one nation, one flag, one destiny 
in the midst of the ages. Thanks be unto God 
also that at the foundation there is no division 
of parties about our institutions. We share in 
the heritage of a common faith in those institu- 
tions as founded by our fathers. As Democrats 
we repeat the words of Thomas Jefferson, " Equal 
rights to all, special privileges to none." As 
Republicans, we echo in the words of Abraham 
Lincoln, "An unfettered start and a fair chance 



Page one hundred twelve 

in the race of life. ^ The doctrine is the same. 
Nor is the time as far off as some may think who 
breathe the atmosphere of the great centers of 
American business and speculation, when the peo- 
ple of the United States, without regard to party 
affiliations will cherish in grateful hearts the bold 
and fearless platform which made the last seven 
years at our capitol famous in the language of 
the American people, "A square deal for every 
man." No more, no less. The doctrine is the 
same, and if it be not true, then there is no founda- 
tion either for the religion or for the institutions 
which we have inherited from our fathers and 
our mothers. 

But the doctrine is forever true, and standing 
this day by the grave of Abraham Lincoln, our 
hearts filled with the heroic memories of other 
generations, we swear for us and for our children, 
by his blood, to make the doctrine true for all 
nations and for all generations and for all the ages 
that are to come. 



Page one hundred thirteen 



GOVERNOR DENEEN 

Introducing Mr. Bryan 

I cannot " introduce " you to the next speaker, 
because he is known to all of you; but it is indeed 
a great pleasure to extend the greetings of this 
vast audience to a native son of Illinois, and to 
an adopted son, only, of Nebraska, who has re- 
turned to his native state to pay his tribute to 
the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the Honorable 
William Jennings Bryan, of Illinois and Nebraska. 



— 8 L C 



Page one hundred fourteen 



HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN 

Lincoln as an Orator 

Ladies and Gentlemen — I esteem myself for- 
tunate to have received an invitation to take even 
a minor part in this great celebration. I thank 
the committee for the honor that it has done me 
and for the pleasure it has given me. The occasion, 
the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
one whom the world owns, has justified the coming 
of these distinguished guests, representing two of 
the greatest of the nations of the world, one which 
we remember because of the help received at a 
critical time, and the other which we remember 
because the relations between the two nations 
illustrate how, among intelligent people, differences 
may be forgotten and ties of friendship strength- 
ened, in spite of war. 

I have been delighted with the splendid oration 
which has been delivered by the Senator from 
Iowa. I knew him too well to expect less; and 
knowing thai to him was assigned the important 



Page one hundred fifteen 

part of presenting a well-rounded eulogy of Lin- 
coln, I chose to speak for a moment upon a par- 
ticular feature in Lincoln's life. I knew that Mr. 
Dolliver would illustrate what I want to say, but 
I felt sure that he would devote so much of his 
time to the other characteristics brought out by 
Lincoln's life, that he might leave me just a little 
to say of Lincoln as an orator. 

This part of his life and of his qualities has, I 
think, been overshadowed by his great career as 
a statesman. 

Lincoln's fame as a statesman and as the nation's 
chief executive during its most crucial period has 
so overshadowed his fame as an orator that his 
merits as a public speaker have not been suffi- 
ciently emphasized. 

You will pardon me, therefore, if I pass over 
the things that are most mentioned in his life, 
and the virtues that have been so eloquently por- 
trayed today, and speak of the part which Lin- 
coln's ability as a public speaker played in his 
career and, through him, in this part of our 
nation's history. 

Lincoln more than any other President we have 
ever had, owes his eminence to his power as a 



Page one hundred sixteen 

public speaker. Without that power he would 
have been unknown among the members of his 
party. 

When it is remembered that his nomination was 
directly due to the prominence which he won 
upon the stump; that in a remarkable series of 
debates he held his own against one of the most 
brilliant orators America has produced; and that 
to his speeches, more than to the arguments of 
any other one man, or in fact, of all other public 
men combined was due the success of his party — 
when all these facts are borne in mind, it will 
appear plain, even to the casual observer, that too 
little attention has been given to the extraordin- 
ary power which he exercised as a speaker. That 
his nomination was due to the effect that his 
speeches produced, can not be disputed. When 
he began his fight against slavery in 1854 he was 
but little known outside of the counties in which 
he attended court. It is true that he had been a 
member of Congress some years before, but at 
that time he was not stirred by any great emotion 
or connected with the discussion of any important 
theme, and he made but little impression upon 
national politics. No subject had then stirred 



Page one hundred seventeen 

his latent energies into life. He was a lawyer of 
distinction in the communities which he visited, 
but he was not known beyond a limited area. 
It was when, in 1S54, he found a cause worthy of 
his championship, that he came from obscurity 
into great prominence. It was when the question 
of the extension of slavery became a real issue, 
that he stepped forth and became the representa- 
tive of the anti-slavery sentiment. 

It so happened that there lived in Illinois the 
man who represented the other side of that ques- 
tion, a great orator, one of the greatest that this 
nation has known, skilled in all the arts of debate, 
polished and having had experience at the nation's 
capitol among the nation's foremost men, and 
when this issue began to take form, Lincoln ap- 
peared as the antagonist of Douglas. 

Beginning in 1854, he counteracted as he could 
the influence of the speeches of Douglas. When 
Douglas appeared in 1858 as a candidate for the 
Senate, to succeed himself, Lincoln presented him- 
self as his opponent. Then began the most re- 
markable series of debates that this world has 
ever known. History records no such series of 
public speeches. 



Page one hundred eighteen 

In order to have a great debate, you must have 
a great subject. You must have great debaters, 
and you must have a people read} 7 for the subject. 
Here were the people ready for the issue. Here 
was an issue as great as ever stirred a human 
heart. Here were the representatives on either 
side. 

In engaging in this contest with Douglas he 
met a foeman worthy of his steel, for Douglas had 
gained a deserved reputation as a great debater, 
and recognized that his future depended upon the 
success with which he met the attacks of Lincoln. 
On one side an institution supported by history 
and tradition and on the other a growing sentiment 
against the holding of a human being in bondage 
— these presented a supreme issue. 

Lincoln was defeated in the debates so far as 
the immediate result was concerned. Douglas 
won the senatorial seat for which the two at that 
time contested but Lincoln won the presidency 
in the same contest. 

Lincoln won the larger victory in that he helped 
to mould the sentiment that was dividing parties 
and re-arranging the political map of the country. 
That series of debates focused public attention 



Page one hundred nineteen 

upon Lincoln, and because of the masterly man- 
ner in which he presented his side of that great 
issue, he became the leader of the forces against 
extension. 

It was because of that leadership, won in the 
forum and on the stump, and by his power of 
speech that, coming from the west, the far west, 
with nothing to command him but the zeal and 
the earnestness and the force with which he pre- 
sented the cause, he triumphed in his convention. 
He was not only a western man, but a man lacking 
in book learning and the polish of the schools. 

He laid the foundations for his party more than 
any other one man, aye, more than all the rest 
combined. He won that fight by his argument. 
His leadership rests upon his superb talent as a 
speaker. No other American president has ever 
so clearly owed his elevation to his oratory. 
Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, the presidents 
usually mentioned in connection with him, were 
all poor speakers. I insist that, when the history 
of this nation's orators is written, Lincoln will 
stand at the top, for this nation has never pro- 
duced a greater orator than Abraham Lincoln. 



Page one hundred twenty 

In analyzing Lincoln's characteristics as a speaker, 
one is impressed with the completeness of his 
equipment. He possessed the two things that are 
absolutely essential to effective speaking — namely, 
information and earnestness. 

I agree with Mr. Dolliver that there are dif- 
ferences of definition and that some will describe 
oratory by one set of phrases, and another by an- 
other. If I were going to describe Mr. Lincoln's, 
I would describe it as the speech of one who knows 
what he is talking about and believes what he 
says. These are the two essentials in oratory. 
You cannot convey information to another unless 
you have it, and you cannot touch others' hearts 
unless your own heart has been touched. Elo- 
quence is the speech that goes, not from head to 
head, but from heart to heart, and just as long as 
there are great causes to be discussed, just as long 
as there are great hearts that throb in harmony 
with the heart of mankind, just as long as there 
are men with a message to deliver, there will be 
orator}', there will be eloquence, in this world. 

Lincoln knew his subject. He was prepared 
to meet his opponent upon the general proposi- 
tion discussed, and upon any deductions which 



Page one hundred twenty-one 

could be drawn from it. There was no unsur- 
veyed field into which he feared his enemy might 
lead him. He had carefully examined every foot 
of the ground upon which the battle was to be 
fought and he feared neither pitfall nor ambush. 
He spoke from his own heart to the hearts of those 
who listened. Not only was he completely filled, 
saturated, with his subject, but he felt that that 
subject transcended the petty ambitions of man. 
I wish I might have lived early enough to have 
listened to one of those debates. We know how 
feebly the printed page conveys the thrill that 
comes from the heart of one who speaks with 
earnestness ; but I can imagine how his face glowed 
with enthusiasm and I can imagine how his voice 
trembled with emotion, when he said, " It matters 
little whether they vote Judge Douglas or me up 
or down, but it does matter whether this question 
is settled right or wrong." 

Lincoln understood a bible passage at which 
some have stumbled, "He that saveth his life 
shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My 
sake shall find it." He knew that that phrase 
has a larger interpretation than is sometimes given 
to it. It is the very epitome of history. The 



Page one hundred twenty-two 

man who has no higher ambition than to save 
his own life, leads a little life; while those who 
stand ready to give themselves for things greater 
than themselves, find a larger life than the life 
that they surrender. Wendell Phillips has ex- 
pressed the same thought that will live when he 
says, "How prudently most men sink into name- 
less graves, while now and then a few forget them- 
selves into immortality. " 

It is not by remembering ourselves, but by 
forgetting ourselves in devotion to things larger 
than ourselves that we win immortality, and 
Lincoln felt that the subject with which he dealt 
was larger than any human being, larger than any 
party, larger than any country, as large as human- 
ity itself ; and with those two essentials, knowledge 
of the subject and intense earnestness, he could 
not be otherwise than eloquent. 

Lincoln had also the subordinate characteristics, 
if I may so describe them, that aid the public 
speaker. 

He was a master of the power of statement. 
Few have equalled him in the ability to strip a 
truth of surplus verbiage and present it in its 



Page one hundred twenty-three 

naked strength. He could state a question so 
clearly that one could hardly misunderstand it 
when he wanted to. 

In the Declaration of Independence we read 
that there are certain self-evident truths, which 
are therein enumerated. I endorse the statement. 
I could go even farther. If I were going to amend 
the proposition, I would say that all truth is 
self-evident. Not that any truth will be uni- 
versally accepted, for not all are in a position 
or in an attitude to accept any given truth. In 
the interpretation of the parable of the sower, 
we are told that "the cares of this world and the 
deceitfulness of riches choke the truth," and it 
must be acknowledged that every truth has these 
or other difficulties to contend with. 

The best service that anyone can render a truth 
is to speak it so clearly that it can be understood, 
and Lincoln possessed the power of stating a truth 
so clearly that it could be understood. 

I do not mean to say that any truth can be 
stated so clearly that no one will dispute it. I 
think it was Macaulay who said that if any money 
was to be made by it, eloquent and learned men 
could be found to dispute the law of gravitation; 



Page one hundred twenty-four 

but what I mean to say is this — that a truth may 
be so clearly stated that no one will dispute it 
unless he has some special reason for not seeing 
it, or for disputing it; and when you find one who 
does not want to see the truth, there is no use 
to reason with him or argue with him. It is a 
waste of time. For instance, if you say to a man, 
"It is wrong to steal" and he said "0, I don't 
know about that," it speaks a self-evident truth. 
Don't argue with him. Just search him and you 
may find the reason in his pocket. 

No one has more clearly stated the fundamental 
objections to slavery than Lincoln stated them, 
and he had a great advantage over his opponents 
in being able to state those objections frankly; 
for Judge Douglas neither denounced nor defended 
slavery as an institution — his plan embodied a 
compromise and he could not discuss slavery upon 
its merits without alienating either the slave- 
owner or the abolitionist. 

Lincoln was not only a master of statement, 
but he understood the power of condensation. 
The epigram is valuable because it contains so 
much in a small compass. 



Page one hundred twenty-five 

We speak of moulders of thought. A moulder 
of thought is not necessarily a creator of thought. 
Just as the bullet moulder will put lead into a 
form in which it can be used effectively, so a moul- 
der of thought puts thought into a form that 
makes it easy to take hold of and easy to remem- 
ber, and Lincoln was a moulder of thought. 
He did not create the anti-slavery sentiment. He 
gave expression to it. He was the spokesman of 
his party, and he framed into words and into 
sentences and into phrases the ideas of those who 
followed him. Just as Jefferson was the moulder 
of the thought of his day, Lincoln was the moulder 
of the thought of his time, and people who agreed 
with him found themselves quoting what he said. 
Why? Because he said it better than they could 
say it and better than anyone else had said it. 

He was apt in illustration — no one more so. 
It is a powerful form of argument. His illustra- 
tions were drawn from everyday life. They were 
simple. A child could understand them and they 
made his arguments irresistible. His language 
was simple. Many have discussed whether Lin- 
coln would have been as great a man as he was 
if he had had larger educational advantages. It 



Page one hundred twenty-six 

is not worth while to discuss that question now. 
It is sufficient to say that a man may know big 
words without using them at inappropriate times. 
Lincoln used no big words. He never spoke over 
the heads of his audiences, and yet his language 
was never commonplace. His language was simple 
and his speech had the strength that simplicity 
gives it. Lincoln may rest his fame as an orator 
on the one speech delivered on the battlefield of 
Gettysburg. He condensed into that speech more 
than can be found in any similar speech that was 
ever uttered by lips that were not inspired. He 
illustrated the knowledge of the people, he dis- 
closed the earnestness of the heart that was 
back of the tongue ; and the language was so simple 
that anyone could fully understand it, and it was 
so short that any memory can hold it and carry it. 
He understood the power of the interrogatory, 
for some of his most powerful arguments were 
condensed into questions. Of all those who dis- 
cussed the evils of separation and the advantages 
to be derived from the preservation of the Union, 
no one ever put the matter more forcibly than 
Lincoln did when, referring to the possibility of 
war and the certainty of peace some time, even 



Page one hundred twenty-seven 

if the Union was divided; he called attention to 
the fact that the same question would have to 
be dealt with, and then asked, " Can enemies make 
treaties easier than friends can make laws?" 

Lincoln, I say had the essentials of the orator, 
and he added to those the things that aid the 
orator, and his oratory is as much a part of his 
life and his career, as is the oratory of Demosthenes 
and Cicero a part of their careers; and he deserves 
to have his name written with theirs among the 
world's great orators. Someone has described the 
difference between Demosthenes and Cicero by 
saying that "when Cicero spoke, people said, 
' How well Cicero speaks, ' but when Demosthenes 
spoke they said 'Let us go against Philip.' " The 
one impressed his subject on the audience, and 
the other impressed himself. In proportion as 
one can forget himself and become wholly absorbed 
in the cause which he is presenting does he measure 
up to the requirements of oratory. 

Lincoln so impressed his subject on an audience 
that the audience seemed to forget him, and they 
have not remembered him as an orator because 
they were so intensely interested in what he said; 
and yet what higher tribute could be paid to a 



Page one hundred twenty-eight 

man's speaking than to say that you forgot the 
speaker because you were aroused by what he said 
to consider the thing of which he spoke. 

He made frequent use of bible language and 
fortified himself by illustrations from Holy Writ. 
It is said that when he was preparing his Spring- 
field speech of 1858 he spent hours trying to find 
language that would express the idea that domin- 
ated his entire career, namely, that a republic 
could not permanently endure half free and half 
slave, and that finally a bible passage flashed 
through his mind, and he exclaimed, "I have 
found it!" "The American people are a bible- 
reading people. They will understand a quotation 
from scripture," and then he used those words, 
"A house divided against itself cannot stand;" 
and I think I risk no fear of contradiction when I 
say that there has never been any other bible 
quotation that has had as much influence in the 
settlement of a great question as that bible quo- 
tation that Lincoln uttered in his humble way. 

I have enumerated some, not all, but the more 
important, of his characteristics as an orator. On 
this day I venture for the moment to turn the 
thoughts of this audience away from the great 



Page one hundred twenty-nine 

work that he accomplished as a patriot, away 
from his achievements in the life of statecraft, to 
the means employed by him to bring before the 
public the ideas which attracted attention to him. 
It cannot be entirely overlooked as the returning 
anniversary of his birth calls increasing attention 
to the widening influence of his work. With no 
military career to dazzle the eye or excite the 
imagination, with no public service to make his 
name familiar to the reading public, his elevation 
to the Presidency would have been impossible 
without his oratory. The eloquence of Demos- 
thenes and Cicero were no more necessary to their 
work, and Lincoln deserves to have his name 
written on the scroll with theirs. 

But, my friends, while I believe that Lincoln's 
oratory is responsible, primarily, for his promi- 
nence, and that it was the foundation of all the 
superstructure of statesmanship that was built 
afterward, still there was something back of his 
oratory, as there must be something back of all 
effective oratory. He planted himself upon prin- 
ciples that are eternal. He saw the relation be- 
tween man and money, and expressed his belief 

— 9 L C 



Page one hundred thirty 

in a letter addressed to the Boston club, who had 
invited him to celebrate with them the birthday 
of Jefferson. He could not go, but in his letter 
he commended Jefferson's teaching and praised 
him. His eulogy of Jefferson was not surpassed 
by any other eulogy that has been pronounced 
on Jefferson. In his letter he said that his party 
believed in the man and the dollar, but in case 
of conflict, it believed in the man before the dollar. 

My friends, that was not a transient sentiment. 
That was not a truth applicable to a particular 
time. You may go back in history as far as you 
will. You may look forward into the future as far 
as you will, and you will find that there never was 
a great abuse and never will be a great abuse, 
that did not grow or will not grow, out of the 
inversion of the proper relation between man and 
money. 

Lincoln saw that man came first and money 
afterwards. He planted himself on that doctrine. 
That doctrine is the solid rock, and because he 
knew that he could not be mistaken, he was not 
afraid to stand there and face anybody who 
opposed him. 



Page one hundred thirty-one 

And to my mind, Lincoln illustrates the power 
of truth speaking through human lips. He illus- 
trates the power of truth as it inspires courage, for 
his moral courage was as superb as the world has 
ever known. He dared to do what he thought 
he ought to do. He dared to say what he thought 
ought to be said, and he asked not how many or 
how few were ready to stand and take their share 
with him. 

Why has his fame grown? Because the truth 
for which he stood has grown; and I cannot better 
conclude my brief speech to you than to. say that 
Lincoln, in his speech, and in his career, and in his 
fame, illustrates again that humble bible truth 
that "One with God shall chase a thousand and 
two shall put ten thousand to flight. " 



Page one hundred thirty-two 



AT ST. JOHNS CHURCH 

At 10:30 a. m. religious services were held at 
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church, formerly 
the First Presbyterian church, which was Mr. 
Lincoln's place of worship from 184 9 to 1861. 
Mr. Lincoln's old pew, marked by an appropriate 
bronze tablet, is still in use. The following address 
by Dr. T. D. Logan, was the principal feature of 
this meeting. 



Page one hundred thirty-three 



REV. THOMAS D. LOGAN, D. D. 

Lincoln as a Worshiper 

It was a cruel tyrant, a heartless slave-driver, 
who said to Israel in bondage: "Ye are idle, 
ye are idle; therefore ye say, Let us go and do 
sacrifice to the Lord." To those who know not 
God, and love not their fellowmen, the worship of 
God seems idleness. Yet it is as natural for man 
to worship as to breathe. Conscious of his limi- 
tations, and recognizing his dependence upon an 
Infinite Being, the soul of man craves fellowship 
with that Being, and reaches out longingly towards 
Him. Thomas Carlyle says : " It is well said, in 
every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact 
with regard to him. Of a man or of a nation we 
inquire, therefore, first of all, what religion they 
had? Answering of this question is giving us the 
soul of the history of the man or nation. The 
thoughts they had were the parents of the actions 
they did; their feelings were parents of their 



Page one hundred thirty-four 

thoughts; it was the unseen and spiritual in them 
that determined the outward and actual — their 
religion, as I say, was the great fact about them. " 
Worship is worthship — an acknowledgment of 
worth. Religious worship is the acknowledgment 
of Supreme Worth. It is a reverential upward 
look, the pouring out of the soul to God, and if 
sincere it commands respect, even when one knows 
that the worshiper has very imperfect ideas of the 
Being whom he addresses. The Puritan may be 
unimpressed with the grandeur of the vast cathe- 
dral, and to one who has been trained in the 
simpler forms of worship, the more elaborate 
ritual may be a hindrance rather than a help in 
his devotion; but when he sees the humble peasant 
kneel before the altar, he recognizes at once a 
fellow-worshiper. One is ready to bare not only 
his head but his feet, as he enters the Mohammedan 
mosque, because it is the place where his fellowman 
bows before the Infinite. Even the heathen, who 
in his blindness bows down to wood and stone, is 
entitled to our sympathetic regard, because accord- 
ing to his light and knowledge, he worships as 
well as he knows how; and the wise missionary 
builds his instruction upon this reverence for the 



Page one hundred thirty-five 



Supreme. Paul addressed his Athenian audience 
as "very religious, " and in the inscription on their 
altar to the unknown God, he found a text from 
which to proclaim Him whom they ignorantly 
worshiped. The time is past, if it ever existed, 
when worship could be confined to any particular 
locality. Neither in Jerusalem alone, nor in the 
mountain of Samaria, ye shall worship the Father. 
The true worshipers shall worship the Father in 
Spirit and in Truth; for the Father seeketh such 
to worship Him. Sincere worship always com- 
mands respect, while the pretense of worship is 
beneath contempt. 

The place where we have assembled on this the 
centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln is, 
therefore, hallowed ground; and it is fitting that 
one of the first exercises of the day should be of a 
religious character. For twelve years prior to his 
election to the Presidency, Abraham Lincoln sat 
in yonder pew, more regular in his attendance at 
the services of the sanctuary than the average 
communicant, a reverent and devout worshiper of 
Almighty God in a Christian congregation. That 
fact in itself is sufficient to make this old church 
one of the sacred spots to be visited by every resi- 



Page one hundred thirty-six 

dent of Springfield, and by every one who makes 
the pilgrimage to this city to view the places so 
closely associated with the career of him whose life 
was sacrificed on the altar of union and liberty. 

But did Lincoln really worship? Was he sincere, 
or was it all a pretense? Strange questions to ask 
concerning one to whom honesty was ascribed as a 
ruling characteristic. Can it be that Lincoln was 
honest in his business dealings and in his political 
relations, and dishonest towards God? Yet such 
is the charge that has been made against him by a 
biographer, whose intimate business relationship 
has led some to accept his statements as authentic 
in other relations of which he had but slight per- 
sonal knowledge. Listen to the accusation as it 
appears in Lamon's Life of Lincoln, the material 
for which was supplied by Mr. W. H. Herndon: 

" While it is very clear that Mr. Lincoln was at 
all times an infidel, in the orthodox meaning of the 
term, it is also very clear that he was not at all 
times equally willing that everybody should know 
it. He never offered to purge or recant; but he 
was a wily politician and did not disdain to regu- 
late his religious manifestations with some regard 
to his political interests. As he grew older he grew 



Page one hundred thirty-seven 

more cautious * * * He saw the immense and 
augmenting power of the churches and in times 
past had practically felt it. The imputation of 
infidelity had seriously injured him in several of 
his earlier political contests; and, sobered by age 
and experience, he was resolved that the same 
imputation should injure him no more. Aspiring 
to lead religious communities, he foresaw that he 
must not appear as an enemy within the gates; 
aspiring to public honors under the auspices of a 
political party which persistently summoned relig- 
ious people to assist in the extirpation of that which 
is denounced as the ' Nation's sin, ' he foresaw that 
he could not ask their suffrages whilst aspersing 
their faith. He perceived no reasons for changing 
his convictions, but he did perceive many good and 
cogent reasons for not making them public * * * 
At any rate Mr. Lincoln permitted himself to be 
misunderstood and misrepresented by some enthu- 
siastic ministers and exhorters with whom he came 
in contact. " 

If the above charge can be sustained, Mr. Lincoln 
was neither a sincere worshiper nor an honest man. 
He might have been an infidel or even an atheist 
and still have been a good man. He might have 



Page one hundred thirty-eight 

worshiped here without approving every sentiment 
expressed from the pulpit. The Presbyterian 
church requires no such surrender of individual 
opinion on the part of worshipers, or even on the 
part of its members. Since the adoption of its 
doctrinal standards in 1729, it has welcomed to 
fellowship in sacred ordinances all such as there is 
ground to believe Christ will at last admit to the 
Kingdom of Heaven. In matters of individual 
opinion or interpretation there was room for much 
latitude ; but there was not room for the hypocriti- 
cal pretense of holding views which in his heart he 
spurned. " God is a Spirit; and they that worship 
Him must worship Him in Spirit and in TRUTH. " 
I am therefore called to the defense of the sin- 
cerity of Abraham Lincoln before I can establish 
the claim that he was a true worshiper. This re- 
quires that we shall make some examination into 
his religious views as well as his religious practices. 
In doing this I shall endeavor to set forth the facts 
as they are contained in the records and traditions 
of this church and of this community, not reading 
my own faith into his, but giving the testimony of 
those who were in a position to know, and allowing 
an intelligent public opinion to decide the case. 



Page one "hundred thirty-nine 

Abraham Lincoln's parents were godly people, 
Baptists in their denominational preferences, and 
his early knowledge of the Bible was derived from 
this source. That he was familiar with this Book, 
and that his literary style was to a great extent 
moulded by it, are facts well known to every careful 
reader of his letters and speeches. The straggling 
settlement at New Salem had neither church nor 
school house, and was visited seldom, if at all, by 
the circuit preachers of that day. There was a 
strong skeptical influence there, and among the 
few books that were passed around were the writ- 
ings of Volney and Paine. It is pretty well estab- 
lished that Lincoln imbibed some of these views, 
and that he wrote an essay on the subject which 
his employer burned in the stove, leaving the world 
in ignorance of the extent of his unbelief. After 
coming to Springfield in 1837, he was not a regular 
attendant at any church, and probably very seldom 
went to any place of worship prior to his marriage. 
The family of Mr. Ninian Edwards, with whom 
Mary Todd made her home, were Episcopalians, 
and the officiating minister was the Rev. Charles 
Dresser, Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal church. 
{The records of that church show that it was the 



Page one hundred forty 

fifteenth wedding since the organization of the 
parish in 1835. One of the elders of the First 
Presbyterian church, at the time when Mrs. Lin- 
coln was received into its membership in 1852, 
recollects that, in her examination, she said that 
she had been confirmed in the Episcopal church 
in Kentucky at the age of twelve years, but that 
she had not been identified with the Episcopal 
church in Springfield, and preferred to make a new 
profession of her faith.) Older members of St. 
Paul's Episcopal church have a recollection of an 
occasional attendance of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln at 
their services, but there is no record of her as a 
communicant, nor were any of the children bap- 
tized in that church. 

The connection with the First Presbyterian 
church began shortly after the opening of the pas- 
torate of Dr. James Smith in 1849, and the intimacy 
between Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and the pastor was 
cemented by his ministrations at the time of their 
first bereavement when their son Edward died Feb- 
ruary 1, 1850. The universal testimony concern- 
ing Dr. Smith by those who remember him is that 
he was a man of commanding ability. A few who 
sat under his ministry are still in the membership 



Page one hundred forty-one 

of the church, and they say that he spoke of the 
deep things of God in a manner which made the 
truth plain to their understanding. Several of his 
descendants are members of the church at the pres- 
ent time. He was the author of a book on the 
Evidences of Christianity which was instrumental 
in clearing away many of the difficulties which had 
lodged in the mind of Mr. Lincoln, and in leading 
to the avowal of his belief in the scriptures as a 
supernatural revelation from God, in a public ad- 
dress at the anniversary of the Sangamon County 
Bible society. The local biographer speaks of this 
book as a little tract which Dr. Smith prepared for 
the express purpose of converting Mr. Lincoln, but 
that the effort failed as the tract lay on his desk 
for weeks and was not even read. A copy of the 
book has recently come into my hands. It is en- 
titled, "The Christian's Defense, " a volume of 
nearly 700 pages, stereotyped and published by J. 
A. James in Cincinnati, in 1843, and is the out- 
growth of a debate with a Mr. Olmsted conducted 
at Columbus, Mississippi, in 1841. It is fully 
abreast of the scholarship of that day. 

The circumstances connected with the attend- 
ance of Mr. Lincoln at the First Presbyterian 



Page one hundred forty -two 

church were given in a letter from Mr. Thomas 
Lewis to my predecessor in the pastorate, Rev. 
James A. Reed, D.D., under date of January 6, 
1873. "Not long after Dr. Smith came to Spring- 
field, and I think very near the time of his son's 
death, Mr. Lincoln said to me that, when on a visit 
somewhere, he had seen and partially read a work 
of Dr. Smith on the Evidences of Christianity which 
had led him to change his views about the Christian 
religion; that he would like to get that work to fin- 
ish the reading of it, and also to make the acquain- 
tance of Dr. Smith. I was an elder in Dr. Smith's 
church, and took Dr. Smith to Mr. Lincoln's office 
and introduced him, and Dr. Smith gave Mr. Lin- 
coln a copy of his book, as I know, at his own re- 
quest. " Mr. Lewis made a fuller statement on 
this subject in an address to the Y. M. C. A. of 
Kansas City in December, 1898. The address was 
printed in the Kansas City papers of that date, 
and copied into the Illinois State Journal of Decem- 
ber 16, 1908. 

This statement is corroborated by an open letter 
from Dr. Smith to W. H. Herndon, copied from the 
Dundee Advertiser by the State Journal on March 
12, 1SG7, as shown in its file in the Slate Historical 



Page one hundred forty-three 

Library. Dr. Smith had been appointed Consul at 
Dundee, Scotland, by President Lincoln, and was 
living there at the time of the assassination. Under 
date of December 22, 1866, Herndon wrote an im- 
pertinent letter to Dr. Smith, demanding that he 
answer him as a gentleman, if he could, and if not, 
to answer him as a Christian, stating whether he 
had any written documents proving that Mr. Lin- 
coln had been converted to the belief that the 
Bible was God's special miraculous revelation; or, 
in the absence of written documents, to give the 
exact words with which he professed his change of 
belief. He also demanded to know whether Dr. 
Smith believed Lincoln to be an honest man if he 
had changed his views and still declined to unite 
with his church. Dr. Smith had just read an article 
of Herndon 's, which appeared in the Scottish news- 
papers, making statements concerning the domestic 
life of Mr. Lincoln which, from his intimate ac- 
quaintance with the family, he knew to be false. 
Much of the letter is devoted to the expression of 
his opinion of one who had been an intimate friend 
and partner of the murdered President, and yet 
could do the reputation of that great and good man 



Page one hundred forty-four 

an incalculable injury. Omitting this part of the 
letter, I give that which bears upon the religious 
views of Mr. Lincoln: 

"Sir — Your letter of the 20th December was 
duly received. In it you ask me to answer several 
questions in relation to the illustrious President, 
Abraham Lincoln. With regard to your second 
question, I beg leave to say that it is a very easy 
matter to prove that while I was pastor of the First 
Presbyterian church of Springfield, Mr. Lincoln did 
avow his belief in the Divine authority and in- 
spiration of the scriptures, and I hold that it is a 
matter of the last importance not only to the pres- 
ent, but all future generations of the great Republic 
and to all advocates of civil and religious liberty 
throughout the world, that this avowal on his part, 
and the circumstances attending it, together with 
very interesting incidents illustrative of his char- 
acter, in my possession, should be made known to 
the public. I am constrained, however, most re- 
spectfully to decline choosing you as the medium 
through which such a communication shall be made 
by me. (The part of the letter referring to Mr. 
Hcrndon is omitted.) My intercourse with Mr. 
Lincoln convinced me that he was not only an 



Page one hundred forty-five 

honest man, but preeminently an upright man — 
ever ready, so far as in his power, to render unto all 
their dues. 

"It was my honor to place before Mr. Lincoln 
arguments to prove the Divine authority and in- 
spiration of the Scriptures, accompanied by the argu- 
ments of infidel objectors in their own language. 
To the arguments on both sides Mr. Lincoln gave 
a most patient, impartial and searching investiga- 
tion. To use his own language, he examined the 
arguments as a lawyer, anxious to reach the truth, 
investigates testimony. The result was the an- 
nouncement by himself that the argument in favor 
of the Divine authority and inspiration of the 
Scriptures was unanswerable. I could say much 
more on this subject, but as you are the person 
addressed, for the present I decline. The assassin 
Booth, by his diabolical act, unwittingly sent the 
illustrious martyr to glory, honor and immortality; 
but his false friend, has attempted to send him 
down to posterity with infamy branded on his fore- 
head, as a man who, notwithstanding all he suf- 
fered for his country's good, was destitute of those 
feelings and affections, without which there can be 
no real excellence of character. " 

—10 L C 



Page one "hundred forty-six 

"N. B. It will no doubt be gratifying to the 
friends of Christianity to learn that very shortly 
after Mr. Lincoln became a member of my congre- 
gation, at my request, in the presence of a large 
assembly, at the annual meeting of the Bible soci- 
ety of Springfield, he delivered an address the 
object of which was to inculcate the importance of 
having the Bible placed in possession of every fam- 
ily in the state. In the course of this he drew a 
striking contrast between the Decalogue and the 
moral codes of the most eminent law-givers of an- 
tiquity, and closed (as near as I can recollect) in 
the following language: 'It seems to me that 
nothing short of infinite wisdom could by any pos- 
sibility have devised and given to man this excel- 
lent and perfect moral code. It is suited to men 
in all conditions of life, and includes all the duties 
they owe to their Creator, to themselves, and to 
their fellow-men. ' " 

In disclaiming the statements purporting to have 
been made by him as set forth in Lamon's Life of 
Lincoln, Hon. John T. Stuart wrote, under date of 
December 17, 1872: "The language of that state- 
ment is not mine; it was not written by me, and I 
did not see it till it was in print. I was once inter- 



Page one hundred forty-seven 

viewed on the subject of Mr. Lincoln's religious 
opinions, and doubtless said that Mr. Lincoln was, 
in the earlier part of his life, an infidel. I could not 
have said that ' Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln 
from infidelity so late as 1858, and couldn't do it. ' 
In relation to that point, I stated, in the same con- 
versation, some facts which are omitted in that 
statement, and which I will briefly repeat: That 
Eddie, a child of Mr. Lincoln, died in 1848 or 1849, 
and that he and his wife were in deep grief on that 
account; that Dr. Smith, then pastor of the First 
Presbyterian church in Springfield, at the sug- 
gestion of a lady friend of theirs, called upon Mr. 
and Mrs. Lincoln, and that first visit resulted in 
great intimacy and friendship between them, last- 
ing till the death of Mr. Lincoln, and continuing 
with Mrs. Lincoln till the death of Dr. Smith. 
(July 3, 1871.) I stated that I had heard, at the 
time, that Dr. Smith and Mr. Lincoln, had much 
discussion in relation to the truth of the Christian 
religion, and that Dr. Smith had furnished Mr. 
Lincoln with books to read on that subject, and 
among others, one which had been written by him- 
self sometime previously, on infidelity; and that 
Dr. Smith claimed that after this investigation Mr. 



Page one hundred forty-eight 

Lincoln had changed his opinion, and became a 
believer in the truth of the Christian religion; that 
Mr. Lincoln and myself had never conversed on the 
subject, and I had no personal knowledge as to his 
alleged change of opinion. I stated, however, that 
it was certainly true, that up to that time Mr. Lin- 
coln had never regularly attended any place of re- 
ligious worship, but that after that time he rented 
a pew in the First Presbyterian church, and with 
his family constantly attended worship in that 
church until he went to Washington as President* * 
I would further say that Dr. Smith was a man of 
very great ability, and on theological and meta- 
physical subjects had few superiors and not many 
equals. Truthfulness was a prominent trait in Mr. 
Lincoln's character, and it would be impossible for 
any intimate friend of his to believe that he ever 
aimed to deceive, either by his words or his con- 
duct." 

Mr. Ninian Edwards' statement on the subject 
is as follows: "A short time after the Rev. Dr. 
Smith became pastor of the First Presbyterian 
church in this city, Mr. Lincoln said to me, ' I have 
been reading a work of Dr. Smith on the Evidences 
of Christianity, and have heard him preach and 



Page one hundred forty-nine 

converse on the subject, and I am now convinced 
of the truth of the Christian religion. '" Mr. 
James H. Matheny wrote: "The language attri- 
buted to me in Lamon's book is not from my pen. 
I did not write it, and it does not express my senti- 
ments of Mr. Lincoln's entire life and character. 
It is a mere collection of sayings gathered from pri- 
vate conversations that were only true of Mr. Lin- 
coln's earlier life. I would not have allowed such 
an article to be printed over my signature as cover- 
ing my opinion of Mr. Lincoln's life and religious 
sentiments. While I do believe Mr. Lincoln to 
have been an infidel in his former life, when his 
mind was as yet unformed, and his associations 
principally with rough and skeptical men, yet I 
believe he was a very different man in later life; 
and that after associating with a different class of 
men, and investigating the subject, he was a firm 
believer in the Christian religion. " 

The testimony of these well-known citizens ought 
to be a sufficient answer to the charge that Mr. 
Lincoln held infidel sentiments which he studiously 
concealed from those with whom he held his relig- 
ious associations, and it confirms the opinion that 
he was a believer in the truths of Christianity. It 



Page one hundred fifty 

is not claimed that, while in Springfield, he had 
passed through those religious experiences which 
would have warranted a profession of his faith ; but 
as the time approached when he was to undertake 
the great task of preserving the Union, there is 
evidence of a depth of religious sentiment which 
had not been known before. During the campaign 
of 1860, he said to Dr. Newton Bateman, Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, and afterwards Pres- 
ident of Knox College, " I know that there is a God, 
and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see the 
storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. 
If He has a place for me — and I think He has — I 
believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is 
everything. I know I am right because I know 
that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it and Christ 
is God." The night after the vote was taken, 
when sufficient returns had been received to insure 
his election, he laid his hand on the knee of Goyn 
A. Sutton, mayor of Springfield, as they sat in a 
room near the telegraph office, and said : " Sutton, 
it is an awful responsibility; God help me! God 
help me!" When the Rev. Albert Hale, pastor of 
the Second Presbyterian church, asked whether he 
thought he could carry out his purposes when he 



Page one hundred fifty-one 

reached Washington, Mr. Lincoln replied: "I 
know what I mean to do, but even St. Peter denied 
his Lord and Master." And when at length, on 
February 11, 1861, he stood on the platform of the 
car at the Wabash station at Monroe and Tenth 
streets, and bade farewell to Springfield, none 
questioned the sincerity of his Christian belief 
when he said: 

" My Friends — No one not in my situation can 
appreciate my feelings of sadness at this parting. 
To this place, and the kindness of this people, I owe 
everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and have passed from a young to an old man. 
Here my children were born, and one lies buried. 
I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever 
I may return, with a task greater than that which 
rested on the shoulders of Washington. Without 
the aid of that Divine Being who ever aided him, 
who controls mine and all destinies, I cannot suc- 
ceed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trust- 
ing in Him who can go with me and remain with 
you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently 
hope that all will be well. To His care commend- 



Page one hundred fifty-two 

ing you, as I hope in your prayers you will com- 
mend me, I bid you, friends and neighbors, an 
affectionate farewell. " 

Here I might close with the confident assurance 
that I had established the fact that, while a resi- 
dent of Springfield, for ten or twelve years preced- 
ing his departure, Abraham Lincoln had been a 
sincere worshiper. It may be well, however, to 
add a few statements concerning his religious views 
and practices while in Washington. Arriving in 
that city, he became a regular attendant of the 
New York Avenue Presbyterian church, under the 
Rev. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley. There were two 
strong characteristics of Mr. Lincoln's religious 
belief to which he gave frequent expression. 

He was a firm believer in the efficacy of prayer. 
This is attested by his remarks to many ministers, 
and to the representatives of many religious bodies. 
An interesting and somewhat amusing incident, 
which I am sure we shall all enjoy as much as our 
Lutheran brethren, is related by the Rev. Dr. H. 
M. Pohlman, of Albany, N. Y. He was one of a 
delegation of Lutheran ministers who visited Mr. 
Lincoln in the White House, in May 1S62, to pre- 
sent the resolutions of loyalty adopted by their 



Page one hundred fifty-three 

General Synod ; and in addressing the President he 
stated that, at their recent meeting, one of the Ger- 
man ministers from Nashville, in a patriotic speech, 
declared that he was the only minister in that city, 
while it was within the Confederate lines, who 
dared to pray for the President of the United 
States, and the reason he dared to do so was be- 
cause "he prayed in German, and the rebels 
couldn't understand German, but the Lord could." 
This evidently pleased Mr. Lincoln greatly, and was 
treasured in his memory. Eighteen months after- 
ward, at the dedication of the National Cemetery 
at Gettysburg, Dr. Pohlman again met the Presi- 
dent, and supposed he would need to be again 
introduced, but Mr. Lincoln at once recognized 
him, and coming forward took him by the hand 
exclaiming, "The Lord understands German." 

The statement made by General Rusling, con- 
cerning what President Lincoln said to General 
Sickles after the Battle of Gettysburg, has been 
challenged as improbable, and even impossible. 
General Rusling says that the President declared 
that he had no doubt as to the issue of that battle, 
because, just before it began, he had retired to his 
room, and getting down on his knees, had prayed 



Paje one hundred fifty-four 

to Almighty God for victory, promising that if God 
would stand by the Nation now, he would stand 
by Him the rest of his life. The late Roland W. 
Diller, a neighbor and intimate friend of Mr. Lin- 
coln, wrote to General Sickles, under date of June 
15, 1891, inquiring as to the accuracy of the state- 
ments, and he received the following reply : " Gen- 
eral Rusling is a thoroughly trustworthy gentleman 
of the highest standing in Trenton. He was an 
officer of my staff, and was no doubt present on 
the occasion mentioned, but I could not after so 
many years verify all the details of his narrative, 
but it is substantially confirmed by my recollection 
of the conversation. " 

The other characteristic of Mr. Lincoln's religious 
belief was a recognition of Divine Providence which 
he stated frequently in terms strong enough to suit 
the firmest believer in the sovereignty of God. 
Herndon accuses him of "holding most firmly to 
the doctrine of fatalism all his life." This he 
denied. In an interview with a number of Wash- 
ington ministers, reported by Rev. Dr. Byron 
Sunderland, Mr. Lincoln said: "I hold myself in 
my present position, and with the authority vested 
in me, as an instrument of Providence. I have my 



Page one hundred fifty-five 

own views and purposes. I have my convictions 
of duty, and my notions of what is right to be 
done. But I am conscious every moment that all 
I am and all I have is subject to the control of a 
Higher Power, and that Power can use me or not 
use me in any manner, and at any time, as in His 
wisdom and might may be pleasing to Him. Never- 
theless I am not a fatalist. I believe in the suprem- 
acy of the human conscience, and that men are 
responsible beings; that God has a right to hold 
them, and will hold them, to a strict personal 
account for the deeds done in the body. " 

His pastor, Dr. Gurley, said that the reports as 
to the infidelity of Mr. Lincoln could not have been 
true of him while at Washington, because he had 
frequent conversations with the President on these 
subjects, and knew him to be in accord with the 
fundamental principles of the Christian religion. 
He further declared that, in the latter days of his 
chastened life, after the death of his son Willie, and 
his visit to the battle field of Gettysburg, he said, 
with tears in his eyes, that he had lost confidence 
in everything but God, that he believed his heart 



Page one hundred fifty-six 

was changed, that he loved the Saviour, and that 
if he was not deceived in himself, it was his inten- 
tion soon to make a profession of religion. 

I cannot more fittingly close this address than 
by quoting a portion of the remarks made by the 
late Secretary of State, Hon. John Hay, as he 
stood beside President Roosevelt in the Lincoln pew 
in the New York Avenue Presbyterian church at 
Washington, on the one hundredth anniversary of 
that church, November 16, 1903: 

"Whatever is remembered or whatever lost, we 
ought never to forget that Abraham Lincoln, one 
of the mightiest masters of statecraft that history 
has known, was also one of the most devoted and 
faithful servants of Almighty God who has ever 
sat in the high places of the world. From that 
dim and chilly dawn, when, standing on a railway 
platform in Springfield, half veiled by falling snow- 
flakes, from the crowd of friends and neighbors who 
had gathered to wish him Godspeed on his momen- 
tous journey, he acknowledged his dependence on 
God, and asked for their prayers, to that sorrowful 
yet triumphant hour when he went to his account, 
he repeated over and over in every form of speech, 
his faith and trust in that Almighty Power who 



Page one hundred fifty-seven 

rules the fate of men and nations * * * I 
will ask you to listen to a few sentences in which 
Mr. Lincoln admits us into the most secret recesses 
of his soul. It is a meditation written in September 
1862. Perplexed and afflicted beyond the power 
of human help, by the disasters of war, the wrang- 
ling of parties, and the inexorable and constraining 
logic of his own mind, he shut out the world one 
day, and tried to put into form his double sense of 
responsibility to human duty and Divine power; 
and this was the result. It shows awful sincerity 
of a perfectly honest soul trying to bring itself into 
closer communion with his Maker. 

"The will of God prevails. In great contests 
each party claims to act in accordance with the 
will of God. Both may be and one must be wrong. 
God cannot be for and against the same thing at the 
same time. In the present civil war it is quite 
possible that God's purpose is something different 
from the purpose of either party; and yet the hu- 
man instrumentalities, working just as they do, are 
of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am 
almost ready to say that this is probably true; that 
God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not 
end yet. By His mere great power on the minds 



Page one hundred fifty-eight 

of the now contestants, He could have either saved 
or destroyed the Union without a human contest. 
Yet the contest began, and having begun, He could 
give the final victory to either side any day. Yet 
the contest proceeds. " 



Page one hundred fifty-nine 



AT THE COURT HOUSE 

Early in the morning the veterans of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, Stephenson Post No. 30, 
planted an elm tree in the court house square dedi- 
cated to the memory of Lincoln which they named, 
"The Lincoln Grand Army Elm. ,, 

At 9 a. m. exercises under the auspices of the 
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution 
were held, at the court house, for the dedication of 
a bronze tablet to mark the site of Mr. Lincoln's 
first law office in Springfield. The leading features 
of this meeting were the addresses of Judges Cart- 
wright and Creighton, which follow, together with 
introductory remarks of Col. Charles F. Mills, who 
presided at the meeting. The tablet referred to is 
inscribed as follows: 



Page one hundred sixty 



Site of 

First 

Law Office 

of 

A. Lincoln 

1837—1839 

Springfield Chapter 

Sons of the 

American Revolution, 



Page one hundred sixty-one 



MAJOR JOHN W. BLACK 

Report of Memorial Tablet Committee 

The undersigned committee of the Springfield 
chapter of the Illinois society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution, to whom was assigned the 
duty of providing and placing a memorial tablet 
for marking the site of the first law office of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, desire to report that a suitable bronze 
tablet has been secured and placed in position at 
109 North Fifth street, Springfield, 111. 

The committee beg leave to present in this con- 
nection some information concerning the location 
of the three law offices occupied by Mr. Lincoln in 
Springfield. 

Mr. Lincoln's first law partnership was with 
Major John T. Stuart, under the firm name of 
Stuart & Lincoln, and their office was in Hoffman's 
row on the west side of Fifth street, between 
Washington and Jefferson streets, and the site 
of this building is now 109 North Fifth street, 
where the tablet has been placed. 

—11 L C 



Page one hundred sixty-two 

The building was erected in 1835 by Herman L. 
Hoffman and was one of a row of four brick build- 
ings of two stories, and when built was the most 
imposing structure in the city. 

The second floor was used by Stuart and Lincoln 
as a law office in 1837, 1838 and 1839. 

When the state capital was removed from Van- 
dalia to Springfield in the winter of 1836, the old 
county court house that stood in the public square 
was torn down to make room for the new capitol 
building, now known as the Sangamon county 
building. The ground floor of the Hoffman row 
was used for the Sangamon county court for a 
term of four years. 

After the election of Major John T. Stuart to 
Congress, in 1838, Mr. Lincoln formed a partner- 
ship with Stephen T. Logan, under the firm name 
of Logan & Lincoln, and occupied an office on the 
third floor of the old Farmers' National bank 
building on the southwest corner of Sixth and 
Adams streets. 

The United States court over which Judge 
Nathaniel Pope then presided as district judge 
occupied the second floor of said building. 



Page one hundred sixty-three 

The firm of Logan & Lincoln was dissolved in 
1843 and Mr. Lincoln then formed a partnership 
with William F. Herndon, under the firm name of 
Lincoln & Herndon, and occupied offices on the 
second floor over the store of John Irwin, 103 
South Fifth street, which is now the south half of 
the Myers Brothers' clothing store. 

The partnership of Lincoln & Herndon continued 
during Mr. Lincoln's term of office as President and 
was only dissolved by the death of Mr. Lincoln 
April 15, 1865. 



Page one hundred sixty-four 



COL. CHARLES F. MILLS 

Introducing Judge Cartwright 

The Springfield chapter of the Illinois society of 
the Sons of the American Revolution has the honor 
of having been the first to be organized in this state. 

It seems fitting that the opening exercises of the 
Centennial Memorial Day should be held by this 
patriotic organization in the building where our 
citizens and the nation paid its final respect to the 
remains of our beloved townsman. 

We are assembled this morning as friends and 
associates to renew and perpetuate the memories 
of Mr. Lincoln as he was best known in Springfield 
as a lawyer and as a citizen. 

A distinguished representative of the Supreme 
Court will present the character of Lincoln as a 
lawyer, and a most worthy judge and our fellow 
townsman will speak of Mr. Lincoln as a citizen. 

It is a great privilege for the Springfield Chapter 
of the Sons of the American Revolution to present 



Page one hundred sixty-five 

Hon. James H. Cartwright, Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Illinois, who will speak of Lincoln 
the Lawyer. 



Page one hundred sixty-six 



JUDGE CARTWRIGHT 

Lincoln, the Lawyer 

At the memorial services held in the Supreme 
Court of this state soon after the death of Abraham 
Lincoln, resolutions of the bar expressive of the 
great loss to the profession, were presented by John 
D. Caton, a former Chief Justice of the court; and 
in adding his words of appreciation he said that 
the pleasing task of speaking of Mr. Lincoln as the 
chosen ruler of the nation must be left to others; 
and while peers sang his praises and orators pro- 
claimed his greatness as a public man, it was be- 
coming that his professional brethren should speak 
of him as a lawyer. Mr. Justice Breese in respond- 
ing for the court echoed the sentiment. The years 
that have passed since that time have not dimmed 
the fame of the great President, but have added 
the love, respect and admiration of the southern 
people, then embittered by the war which had 
destroyed their industrial system, set aside their 
social order, and wrought devastation among them. 



Page one hundred sixty-seven 

That people have long since recognized that he was 
their best and truest friend ; and today North and 
South hold in the same high esteem the man of 
humble birth, noble life and tragic death. The 
people today are listening to orators who recount 
the events of his life, extol his virtues and proclaim 
his greatness in the high office which he filled; and 
again it may be said that it becomes us who are 
members of the profession which he practiced dur- 
ing nearly all the years of his manhood to speak of 
him as Lincoln the lawyer. 

For nearly thirty years he was a member of the 
bar of the Supreme Court and for about a quarter 
of a century he was engaged in the active practice 
of his profession in that court and the trial court. 
He had a natural love of justice and it was his 
early ambition to be a lawyer. That ambition was 
realized by perseverance in the face of poverty and 
many difficulties. His devotion to the law and 
reverence for its principles, at that time, were illus- 
trated by an address delivered at Springfield, in 
1837, in which he exhorted his hearers never to 
violate, in the least particular, the laws of the 
country and never to tolerate their violation by 
others. He believed that respe ct for the law should 



Page one hundred sixty-eight 

be inculcated among the people, and said "Let 
reverence for the law be breathed by every Amer- 
ican mother to the lisping babe that prattles on 
her lap. Let it be written in primers, spelling 
books and almanacs. Let it be preached from the 
pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced 
in courts of justice. In short, let it become the 
political religion of the United States. " 

Law books were then few in number but they 
contained the fundamental rules under which jus- 
tice has been and is administered. Practically his 
whole education derived from books was acquired 
in the study of the law and that study moulded his 
intellect and character and gave color to all his 
thoughts. He learned the principles of the law and 
his great common sense enabled him to apply them 
to different conditions. His ability, integrity and 
devotion to law and justice soon won for him an 
exalted position at the bar. To have succeeded in 
an unworthy cause would have given him neither 
pleasure nor pride, and his success was founded, 
not upon tricks and devices to defeat the law, but 
in truth and honesty in upholding the law as he 
understood it. 



Page one hundred sixty-nine 

He was lured from the practice of law to political 
life for a short time, but left Congress in much dis- 
satisfaction to resume the profession which he 
loved. In the friendly contests of the bar he met 
men of great ability and learning who called forth 
his greatest efforts; and it was these contests that 
developed his growing powers. When he was again 
summoned to the political field by what he believed 
to be a great wrong, he stepped into the arena fully 
equipped by experience at the bar to meet and 
overthrow his great antagonist. Victor in that 
contest, although lacking the rewards of victory, 
he returned to the law office in Springfield and to 
the practice of the law. From that office he went 
directly to the highest position in the nation and 
assumed the greatest burdens ever laid upon the 
shoulders of an American citizen. He had then 
received an education at the bar such as no uni- 
versity could have given him. 

He looked upon the crisis which confronted the 
nation with the eye and from the standpoint of the 
lawyer. His first inaugural address which closed 
with the oft-quoted and touching appeal to his 
dissatisfied fellow-countrymen was, in its sub- 
stance, a legal argument. He said that he had no 



Page one hundred seventy 

lawful right to interfere with slavery in the states 
where it existed, and having no such right he had 
no inclination to do so. He recalled the resolution 
of the platform on which he had been a candidate 
denouncing lawless invasion of state or territory 
and declared for the maintenance of the rights of 
the states. He quoted the provisions of the con- 
stitution as to the delivery of persons held to ser- 
vice or labor in one state and escaping to another, 
and applied the maxim of the law : " The intention 
of the law-giver is the law. " He did not give his 
approval to those who refused obedience to laws 
enacted in pursuance of the Constitution whether 
animated by hatred of what he regarded as a great 
wrong and injustice or not. 

He argued the indissoluble nature of the compact 
between the states both in contemplation of uni- 
versal law and the law of contract. It was the 
unanswerable argument of a lawyer. He believed 
in the justice of the people and asked, " Why should 
there not be confidence in the ultimate justice of 
the people? Is there any other or equal hope in 
the world?" 

With the warmest and kindliest human sympa- 
thy he combined an unyielding adherence to right 



Page one hundred seventy-one 

and justice; and in his habit of thought, remained 
a lawyer to the end. After four years when he 
realized that the decision of the issue might rest 
with the Judge of all the Earth and that the judg- 
ment might be that all the wealth piled by the 
bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil should be 
sunk, and every drop of blood drawn with the lash 
should be paid with' another drawn with the sword, 
yet he could humbly say: " The judgments of the 
Lord are true and righteous altogether. " 

You have determined to commemorate the life 
and character of Mr. Lincoln as a lawyer and have 
designed this tablet to be placed at the site of his 
first law office. It will be a perpetual memorial 
and belongs to a class which the law regards as 
public benefactions on account of their tendencies 
and the lessons which they teach. Like the build- 
ing of churches which inclines the hearts of the 
people to morality and religion, the founding of 
seats of learning for education, and the establish- 
ment of public hospitals, so the statue, the monu- 
ment and the memorial to commemorate a great 
and worthy life and example serve the highest pub- 
lic good by the inspiration which they give to 
emulate the life and imitate the example. 



Page one hundred seventy-two 

This tablet will be a constant reminder of the 
great lawyer and President and of the qualities 
which endeared him to the people and have made 
his name immortal. It will deliver its voiceless but 
potent message to the mind and heart, not alone 
on this day set apart for celebrating the goodness 
and greatness of Mr. Lincoln, but from hour to 
hour and day to day in the coming years. The 
message and the lesson will not be alone for the 
student of history, the philosopher, the statesman 
or for those who gather today to listen to their 
wisdom, but also to every passer-by. It will in- 
spire the boy as his mind and character unfold and 
develop from day to day, and inspire him with 
higher ideals of life and of the responsibilities of a 
citizen. It will teach its lesson to the laboring man 
who toils for the support of himself and family and 
to all common people into whose rank Mr. Lincoln 
was born and from whom he never permitted him- 
self to be separated by place or power. It will 
stimulate patriotism in all and teach the lesson that 
those things which truly exalt an individual are the 
old fashioned and homely virtues of honesty, truth 
and integrity. By its silent influence it will lead to 
emulation of the character, the simple virtues, the 



Page one hundred seventy-three 

kind heart, obedience to the spirit of the law of the 
great lawyer and the great President whom it com- 
memorates. 



Page one hundred seventy-four 



COLONEL MILLS 

Introducing Judge Creighton 

This occasion is graced with the presence of and 
participation of a gentleman who succeeded to the 
law business of Mr. Lincoln whose associates and 
successors were as follows: Stuart and Lincoln; 
Logan and Lincoln ; Herndon and Lincoln ; Herndon 
and Zane; Herndon and Orendorff; Orendorff and 
Creighton. 

I have now the honor of presenting our most 
worthy townsman, who has graced the bench of 
our county and circuit courts longer than any of 
his predecessors, Judge James A. Creighton. 



Page one hundred seventy-five 



JUDGE CREIGHTON 

Lincoln, the Citizen 

Mr. President — I thank you and, through you 
and the committee, I thank all the Sons and 
Daughters of the American Revolution, for the 
honor conferred upon me by placing my name on 
the program for this occasion. 

The announcement made by your president sug- 
gests to my mind that but for the fact that the 
venerable Judge Zane, so respected and so loved 
by all, is unable by reason of the weight of years 
to make the long journey from his present home 
in Salt Lake City, the place assigned to me would 
have been assigned to him; and after Judge Zane 
our distinguished fellow-citizen, General Orendorff, 
would have received this honor but for the fact 
that he is confined to his home by severe illness. 

Concerning the subject assigned I want to make 
this statement : " Lincoln, the Citizen, " comprises 
all there was of Lincoln — all his life, all his labors, 
all his achievements. It is apparent that no dis- 



Page one hundred seventy-six 

cussion in detail within the time here allotted to 
this subject could greatly enlighten or entertain an 
audience composed almost wholly of Springfield 
citizens at so early an hour upon a day so filled 
with world-wide interesting exercises as our pro- 
gram for this day discloses. No one can recognize 
this more than I . I shall detain you but a short 
time and hope to keep within the limit of time 
allotted me. 

This occasion is an epoch-marking occasion — 
the celebration of the centennial of the birth of 
Lincoln in the city where he spent substantially, 
all of his mature life and in the very shadow of the 
monument that marks his resting place. More 
than a year ago a number of patriotic Lincoln- 
loving Springfield citizens begun to plan a Lincoln 
centennial celebration that should be something 
more than local — a celebration that should be 
State-wide, Nation-wide, World-wide in its scope. 
They procured the Congress to make Lincoln's 
birthday a national holiday; they procured the 
General Assembly to create a commission to make 
arrangements for the celebration and they organ- 
ized and incorporated the Lincoln Centennial as- 
sociation. This association is a perpetual associa- 



Page one hundred seventy-seven 

tion and now consists of five hundred and ten life 
members. Its purpose is to be an immortal guard 
of honor to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. To- 
day in every state of this Union of States, in every 
country upon which the sun shines, the centennial 
anniversary of the birth of Lincoln is being cele- 
brated and in every language that has a literature. 

I remember when I was a boy at school I was 
assigned to compose and deliver an oration on 
Abraham Lincoln. While Judge Cartwright was 
speaking the opening sentence of that oration re- 
curred to my mind: "If the question were to be 
asked 'What one man has engrossed the attention 
of the civilized world above all others for the last 
seven years?' the answer must be Abraham Lin- 
coln. " And today if the question were to be asked, 
" What one character is engrossing the attention of 
the civilized world above that of all others?" the 
answer still must be that of Abraham Lincoln. 

I never personally knew Mr. Lincoln. The trag- 
edy of his death occurred when I was yet a boy. 
But the name of Lincoln was a household word in 
my father's home from my earliest recollection. 
I shall not go into all the interesting history of why 

—12 L C 



Page one hundred seteniy-eigU 

that was so. I shall simply state a few conclusions 
and take it for granted that a Springfield audience 
knows all the evidentiary facts. 

Soon after I came to full manhood I became a 
citizen of Springfield. I came here with a mind 
and heart hungry for every scrap of truth that I 
could glean concerning any feature of his life. It 
was my good fortune to know Major Stuart, his 
preceptor and first law-partner; Judge Stephen T. 
Logan, his second law-partner and, in a sense, a 
preceptor after the lines of whose mind Lincoln 
trained his own to think; William H. Herndon, his 
partner for the seventeen years that preceded his 
election to the Presidency and his nominal partner 
during all the years he held that office; Hon. Ninian 
Edwards, in whose house Lincoln wooed and won 
and wedded ; Captain Kidd, the crier of the court, 
who remembered more of the stories that Lincoln 
actually did tell than any other man; Judge Ben- 
jamin F. Edwards, James C. Conkling, Judge James 
H. Matheny, Judge S. H. Treat, Milton Hay, Gov- 
ernor Palmer, General McClernand, Col. John 
Williams, George Black and many more who have 
since gone home — whose names will readily occur 
to all of you as personal friends of Mr. Lincoln. All 



Page one "hundred seventy-nine 

these and many others throughout the city and 
country were my personal friends with whom I was 
on social terms and, with respect to all that per- 
tained to Lincoln, I think on intimate and confi- 
dential terms. And of the men who knew Lincoln 
— these still living in this community — I have had 
the good fortune to know such men as Dr. William 
Jayne, John W. Bunn, Senator Cullom, Dr. Pas- 
field, Dr. Converse, Clinton L. Conkling, Charles 
Ridgley, and many others. I believe I have come 
in personal contact with almost every man that has 
lived in this city or this county since my coming 
here who really ever had any personal acquaintance 
with Mr. Lincoln and have talked with them about 
him by the hour, by the day — in the aggregate I 
believe I might say — by the year. I have gathered 
every scrap of available information bearing upon 
every feature and act of his life ; and the consensus 
of it all is that Abraham Lincoln was in very truth, 
in all the petty details of private life as well as in 
his public career, a Model Citizen. He was in every 
respect and in every true sense of the word a moral 
man; he was diligent and painstaking in business; 
he was honest; he was kind; he was loyal to his 
friends without taint of selfishness; he was just, 



Page one hundred eighty 

I was about to say, to his enemies — I will say, to 
his adversaries — Lincoln had no personal enemies 
and he was absolutely devoid of malice. I have 
never heard a syllable from any person evidencing 
a single instance in the life of Lincoln where he 
harbored the least malice. He, a few times, was 
observed to become intensely angry when his mo- 
tives were impugned and he was not always able 
to restrain himself from all exhibition of anger; but 
when the heat of passion had subsided, as it always 
soon did, there remained no trace of malice. He had 
provocation. He was slighted by men who ought 
to have been too just to slight him; he was snubbed 
by men who ought to have been too great to snub 
him; he was betrayed by men who ought to have 
been too loyal to betray him; he had provocation 
that would have caused the iron to enter the soul 
of almost any less perfect than the Son of Man. 
You all recall some of these instances and you know 
how free from malice his subsequent conduct 
proved him to be. 

He believed in the Great Jehovah and in the 
eternal principles of truth and justice and he acted 
up to the full measure of his belief, every day of 
his life — in the smallest and most trivial transaction 



Page one hundred eigUy-one 

as well as in the greatest. I wish to repeat that 
he was, in every sense of the term, at every stage 
of his life, in very truth a Model Citizen. I know 
how impotent and empty mere adjective eulogy is 
— how little it really means to say of a man that 
he was honest, good, great, wise, unselfish, devoid 
of malice and the like to this end — mere adjective 
laudation. But in this case, the case of Abraham 
Lincoln, the evidence which I have not recounted 
in detail is known to you all; and to say these 
things (and many more that might be said of him) 
does mean something to you. The people of 
Springfield, his neighbors in the country villages, 
knew Lincoln's worth and valued it before he was 
discovered to the Nation and the world. 



Page one hundred eighty-two 



AT THE HIGH SCHOOL 

The High School meeting held on the afternoon 
of the 11th was attended by the faculty and stu- 
dents of the Springfield High School, Principal L. 
M. Castle presiding. The leading feature of this 
event was the address of General John W. Noble, 
of St. Louis, who served with distinction as a gen- 
eral of the Civil War and later served as Secretary 
of the Interior under President Harrison. His ad- 
dress follows. 



Page one hundred eighty-three 



GENERAL NOBLE 

The Relation of Springfield to Lincoln and the 

Character of the United States as 

Impersonated in Lincoln 

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Pupils of the High 
School — I have but little claim to come here on 
the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, to speak 
regarding him. His praise has been spoken for 
almost a half a century, by the most eminent men, 
not only in our own country but others, and his 
deeds have become a part of the history, not only 
of the United States, but of the best chapters of 
all history that relates to mankind. 

I have put on my breast today, not through any 
egotism, the only claim I have to be here, the badge 
of the Grand Army of the Republic. I was a soldier 
for four years — one of Abraham Lincoln's Union 
soldiers. I served in my own regiment, for those 
four years, with men who knew him. I knew him. 
I served with men that knew that whatever might 
happen, in death, in carnage, in victory or defeat, 



Page one hundred eighty-four 

in advance or retreat, whether this or that general 
was good or bad, or that movement was successful 
or unsuccessful, there was above us all one heart, 
one man, that was the friend of us all, that wanted 
our success as he wanted to live, himself, that that 
success might be for the benefit of his country and 
the world, that loved the soldiers and whom the 
soldiers loved, Abraham Lincoln! 

And in that sympathy of feeling, born of those 
four years, I, when asked by your superintendent 
to come here, felt that I might come. I might 
speak a word in Springfield, not in addition of 
praise — Lincoln needs no praise from me; not to 
add anything to history — it has all been written; 
but before you young men and women (some of 
whom are almost as old as the boys that went with 
me into the army in '61, and girls like those we 
left behind us when we went into the army, daugh- 
ters yourselves, and sons, of the very soldiers, or 
the grandchildren of the very soldiers of whom I 
have spoken) I might say a word here at Springfield 
that would be worth your while to hear. 

Springfield ! The center, the capital, of this great 
State of Illinois! The song that has just been sung 
has touched my heart deeply. " Illinois! Illinois! " 



Page one hundred eighty-five 

The refrain bears with it memories of mine from 
old. I have almost always lived, not in Illinois, 
but on the border of Illinois, and coming here to 
speak of this great man, Abraham Lincoln, I am 
touched when I reflect how sweet those words 
would be, were he today to hear them. For if a 
man ever lived who appreciated and was grateful 
for the support, the kindness, the aid of a people, 
Abraham Lincoln was towards the people of Illi- 
nois, and of the people of Illinois, most, those of 
Springfield. 

How did he come to Springfield? You remem- 
ber. On a borrowed horse, with a pair of saddle 
bags that contained all his earthly goods, how he 
left his father on the farm where he had hewed the 
rails to inclose a few acres, and arriving at the 
store of Mr. Speed, dismounted and talked to him, 
and said, "I have come to Springfield to live, " 
and Speed says, "What are you going to do?" 
" Well, " he said, " I want you to go over with me to 
the boarding house, and if this experiment of being 
a lawyer is successful, I can pay my board, and if 
it is not they will have to wait until I can earn it 
some other way, I think. " And Speed said, "Well, 
Lincoln, I have a double bed up stairs, go up and 



Page one hundred eighty-six 

stay with me, and I will go over with you and we 
will arrange about your boarding there. It is a 
double bed and we can both sleep in the same bed.' ' 
Lincoln said no more. He took the saddle bags 
upstairs and then he came down and said, "Well, 
Speed, I've moved!" He had come to Springfield. 

Now, who was this man? What had he done? 
What attainments had he acquired? A poor boy, 
whose bare feet had trod the earth from Kentucky 
to Indiana, and who, as he had grown up, con- 
ducted his own family and helped move to Illinois, 
and had learned the rudiments of an education 
hard and more or less imperfectly but had attained 
at least to a sufficient acquaintance with the Eng- 
lish law and English literature to have read the 
Life of Washington, and the Bible, the statutes 
of Indiana, and some law books, enough to claim 
to be a lawyer! 

What and how did he leave Springfield, and 
when? He left Springfield the best equipped, 
mentally, morally and as a statesman, of any man 
that has ever lived in the State of Illinois, or I may 
say in the United States. 

How did he acquire it? You know it is a fact 
that things that last long grow slowly. The great 



Page one hundred eighty-seven 

productions of the world are those that mature in 
long periods of time. He grew slowly. Abraham 
Lincoln was no great genius. He did not spring 
up and startle the world any more than you would 
do. There is nothing in your condition today, my 
young friends, that is not superior in all that you 
have, in the way of intellectual equipment, to what 
Abraham Lincoln had, and you have before you 
the same opportunities that he had. There is not 
a boy nor a girl within the sound of my voice that 
has not all that goes to illuminate the mind, and 
more than he had; but there is something else. 
There is character. 

What is character? Tell me that. It is the 
combination of qualities that goes to make a man — 
a good man, or a bad man. It is the combination, 
and what is the quality? You say, "A combina- 
tion of qualities, " what is the quality? A quality 
is that which distinguishes one subject from 
another. Wood has a quality. Iron has another 
quality. A man has a quality of integrity. Another 
man has a quality of malice. 

Where the character is involved, everything is 
at stake, either for good or bad, and this man that 
came thus poorly equipped to Springfield had a 



Page one hundred eighty-eight 

character; and that character was born of the study 
at his mother's knee with the Bible, a study of the 
Life of Washington and his Farewell Address, a 
study of the Declaration of Independence, a knowl- 
edge of the men who had navigated the great ship 
of state from the days when Washington was Presi- 
dent down to the time he came to Springfield. 

It was not an exhaustive study, nor need j^ours 
be. If you have the character in which you will 
imbed that knowledge, then you will so far be like 
Lincoln, because there was imbedded there that 
patriotism, that knowledge of the institutions of 
his country and its history, that led him on to 
study, to debate, to take up the questions of inter- 
est to the people of this community in which he 
lived, to the state, to his county. Not simply to 
orate, to talk! He went up and down these streets 
we walk today. He stood in that public square. 
He had his office at the corner of it. He met his 
fellows in every direction. He knew the children 
of Springfield. There never was a time when Lin- 
coln passed along the street, and a boy or girl spoke 
to him that he did not at once stop and speak, to 
ask the name, and if he knew father or mother to 
speak of them, with a smile that every little girl 



Page one hundred eighty-nine 

and boy knew was the index of a kind heart, he 
either took them in his arms, or walked with them 
until they found it necessary to go and leave him. 
He took the boys of this town out to the Sangamon 
to fish, and lay upon the bank while they enjoyed 
a day of recreation. That man who had a family 
of his own, whose children were the companions of 
the children of his neighbors, was thinking great 
thoughts. He was studying to perfect himself. 
When he had become a member of Congress, 
through the favor and votes of this community, he 
had studied and mastered, as he says himself, the 
first six books of Euclid — geometry! because this 
man was seeking, not for general expansion of 
knowledge, not something to talk with, something 
to make himself illustrious or noted, but acquiring 
those intellectual instruments and tools whereby 
he could demonstrate the truth that he believed ex- 
isted, just as in Euclid you know you have to dem- 
onstrate by accurate and successive problems and 
factors the center of truth. Those were years of 
study. Those were years of development, not only 
of the man but of the soul. Attachment to his 
country was growing within him. The Union! 
Illinois! Illinois was far away from Washington. 



Page one hundred ninety 

The Louisiana Purchase, across the Mississippi, and 
ranging off to the Pacific, had been acquired. This 
great republic was expanding in domain, and its 
interests were increasing in magnitude from year 
to year, and no man in all the multitudes of its 
people saw more clearly than did Abraham Lincoln 
the fact that we were coming to be a great people ; 
and he had read in the Farewell Address of Wash- 
ington that the Union was the Palladium of our 
liberty. He had read in that address of Washing- 
ton that it was essential to the public safety and 
happiness that that Union should be preserved. 

Abraham Lincoln never forgot those lessons, and 
as he grew, and these questions were more or less 
discussed in the legislature, the first thing that he 
did at Vandalia, when the State had a tendency to 
go in favor of slavery, which was then authorized 
by law, was to file a dissenting protest against the 
vote. He and Mr. Story, the only two men, said: 
" In our judgment slavery is both an act of injustice 
and bad policy. M 

How did he acquire that concientiousncss, that 
audacity, that courage? He had that from con- 
tact with these people whom he met, day after day, 
on the broad wind-swept prairies where freedom 



Page one "hundred ninety-one 

was in the air; and he had seen slavery in the south. 
He had seen a yellow girl pinched and moved about 
as a chattel, whether she would bring more or less, 
and he had said to himself, "I hate that thing!" 
"I hate that thing!" And when Illinois was 
speaking on that subject, he said " It is unjust and 
it is impolitic." He was studying Euclid. He 
was studying the history of his country. He was 
studying the politics of the day. He was talking 
with his neighbors here in Springfield, and there 
was a law, you know, whereby slavery had been 
excluded from any state that might be formed 
north of the line 36°30", which is the southern 
boundary of Missouri almost, and Missouri is my 
state now. 

I speak not invidiously. I am not raising up 
old fires. I am talking about the growth of a great 
man; and unless I say what was done, and why it 
was done, it is useless to say it. That line having 
been acted upon, and Missouri induced into the 
Union, in course of time another of your citizens, 
a great man intellectually, Stephen A. Douglas, 
whom your fathers and grandfathers, many of them, 
admired very much and stood by, was instrumental 
in having that line removed by an act of Congress, 



rage one hundred ninety-two 

and that limitation, which was the term of the 
treaty by which the state of Missouri had come into 
the Union, having got Missouri in, on the question 
of Kansas and Nebraska was removed, so that 
slavery might not be confined to the south but 
could come north. 

There followed on that the Dred Scott Decision 
which held substantially — I will not go into that 
in its refinement — as it was then interpreted, that 
the institution of slavery could go into any terri- 
tory, and, indeed, if carried to its limit, any state. 

Now this man, here in Springfield, who had been 
to Congress and had come back, who had offered 
in Congress a bill declaring for the emancipation 
of the slaves in the District of Columbia, which did 
not receive the consideration of Congress, who had 
inscribed that early paper with his own signature 
against that institution, saw his country, our coun- 
try, about to be invaded with this thing that he had 
called unjust and impolitic. He put on his intel- 
lectual armor. He stood up for the right, and he 
challenged Mr. Douglas at your town. He de- 
bated with him from city to city. Twice he fol- 
lowed him when there was no appointment, and 
seven times he followed him when there was an 



Page one hundred ninety-three 

appointment, and met him in debate upon the 
right of slavery to be national, claiming that free- 
dom was national and not slavery, and that it 
must be so decided, ultimately. 

He did not resist the decision that had been made. 
He did not endeavor to raise any insurrection, but 
he simply demonstrated to his fellow citizens, 
when he was in the forum, that the right thing to 
do was to support freedom. And so far from being 
led to anything like revolt, he seized the idea of 
the Union as he had studied it and learned it from 
Washington, as the central fact, that the Union 
must be preserved. Even if he were elected Pres- 
ident, no matter what might occur, the Union of 
these states was the Palladium, as Washington had 
said. 

"What! Can slavery go on?" "Yes," he an- 
swered. " Shall slavery perish? " " Yes " he said, 
"if necessary," and as President of the United 
States, he went forth with but one declaration 
before the people of our country, and that was the 
supremacy of the Constitution and the necessity of 
the Union. 

What did he owe to Springfield when he went 
there? I will not undertake, myself, to repeat what 

—13 L c 



Page one hundred ninety-four 

he said. I will read it to you. He had come with 
Mr. Speed and stayed with him, and grown to be 
this man, and when he left Springfield to be Presi- 
dent of the United States he said: 

"To this place (that is, Springfield,) and the 
kindness of this people I owe everything. Here I 
have lived a quarter of a century and have passed 
from a young to an old man. Here my children 
were born and one lies buried. I leave now, not 
knowing when or whether ever I may return. With 
a task before me greater than that which rested 
on the shoulders of Washington, without the aid 
of that Divine Being who ever aided him, who 
controls mine and our destinies, I cannot succeed. 
With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in 
Him who can go with me and remain with you, and 
be every where for good, let us confidently hope 
that all will yet be well. To His care commending 
you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend 
me, I bid you, friends and neighbors, an affection- 
ate farewell." 

Every heart, on this day, this Centennial of the 
birth of Abraham Lincoln, should be warm towards 



Page one hundred ninety-five 

him whose name should be exalted, both for the 
judgment of his counsels and for the glory of his 
name to Springfield. 

If Lincoln were to look down this day upon this 
whole bright realm, our country, could his eye see, 
or his immortal spirit be touched by our sympathy, 
or heart be moved by mortal affection, it would be 
upon Springfield, he would look with eyes filled 
with tears. " Illinois ! " " Illinois ! " 

Here had the man come, from rail splitting, with 
bare feet on the ground, bringing his humble equip- 
ment, on the borrowed horse. Here he had dwelt 
for 25 years — "a quarter of a century" as he said. 
Here the "something" had been done, in the devel- 
opment of character. 

The demand that slavery should be national and 
that freedom should be confined to a particular 
section, did not end when he was elected President. 
He had advocated freedom for the nation. He had 
submitted it to the jury of his countrymen and 
the verdict had been in his favor. The judgment 
was entered, when he took the oath of office as 
President of the United States, that this Union 
should not be dissolved. But it is one thing to 
render judgment. It is another to enforce it. Then 



Page one hundred ninety-six 

came the execution of that judgment. "Shall it 
be so or shall a portion of those that ought to obey 
the law resist it successfully?" 

I don't know how familiar you are with the bat- 
tles of the war. I don't know whether you recog- 
nize how many men died to make that verdict 
final and that judgment obeyed. 

Vicksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, The Wilder- 
ness, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania! Each one of 
them mounted up in death losses to tens and twen- 
ties of thousands killed and wounded. That had 
to be done and the character that had to do it was 
the character of Abraham Lincoln. 

He did not cease in his war for the Union. He 
never hesitated. Judge Usher, who was his Sec- 
retary of the Interior a portion of the time, says 
that from the beginning to the end of the war there 
never was a moment that Abraham Lincoln had 
the least doubt about the successful result for our 
country. He never allowed a compromise of prin- 
ciple. 

When, after his election, there were conferences 
whereby they could accomodate matters so that 
there would be no war, lie wrote, and he declared 
and advised, that there be no compromise. "What 



Page one hundred ninety-seven 

we have gained for freedom, we will maintain. 
The Union must be preserved. No separation, no 
disintegration, of this great government of ours. 
No man is my friend who wants, now, to quit, and 
give up what we have gained, for the reason that 
it will all have to be done over again. We have 
won for the Union. If we give up it will have to 
be done again. Don't do it ! We may as well meet 
the issue now, as ever. " 

The hosts of the south were, at the beginning, 
successful. I have no hostility in my heart against 
the southern man, now, although I was a soldier, 
and he tried to kill me and I tried to put him out of 
the fight. 

Henry Ward Beecher was in England, trying to 
get some sympathy for the United States, in its 
great fight, and told them we were going to be 
successful that they better land on our side, and 
it would be better just on those principles, whether 
they were in favor of freedom or slavery. They 
hooted and cried out against him, and would not 
listen. Hoots and cat-calls mingled with fife and 
horn. Finally, a man called, out of a box, "If 
you can whip them, why haven't you done it be- 
fore? " 



Page one hundred ninety-eight 

Dr. Beecher said, "Now, then, Englishmen, 
since fair play is a jewel, I claim the right to answer 
that man. " 

It was in Exeter Hall, at a great meeting there. 
The English nation always voices a sentiment for 
"fair play, " you know. 

He said, "You asked me why if we can whip 
them, we haven't whipped them before," He 
went on "I will tell you why, my friend. It is 
because we are fighting Americans, and not Brit- 
ish." 

He had that fight to make and he made it. Here 
is slavery; here is the independence of the United 
States, its character of independence, its character 
for justice, its Declaration of Independence in the 
Constitution, that every man is entitled to life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and here is 
the man who has come to the foremost place, to 
assert these concrete propositions! 

There was slavery, yes. There was slavery when 
Washington was President, and had the Constitu- 
tion made as it was made. There was slavery 
through all the years down to the time of Lincoln. 
The character of Washington, of Hamilton, of 
John Marshal] the Chief Justice, had interpreted 



Page one hundred ninety-nine 

the Constitution of the United States so as to make 
it effective, with Daniel Webster, who demon- 
strated the great proposition that ended in these 
glorious words, " Liberty and Union, now and for- 
ever, one and inseparable." They had all done 
that in the presence of a Constitution that, as Mr. 
Lincoln said, in his debate with Douglas, gave the 
power to one man, under the law, to eat the bread 
that another man had earned. 

Now, Mr. Lincoln did not want to raise that 
question. He wanted the Union, and he knew 
that if the Union of these states was preserved, 
as he said, "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." "It cannot be half free and half slave. 
It will be ultimately all one or all the other. " He 
knew and he believed that if the Union was pre- 
served and grew as it was growing, it would make 
freedom ultimately. He did not say that; he held 
that. Battle after battle was lost, the people 
were almost dismayed, but men kept coming, with 
the old song, "We're coming Father Abraham, 
three hundred thousand more, " swelling the ranks 
of the army until, before the war was over, and this 
great struggle for liberty concluded, there had 
been three million mustered on the Union side. 



Page two hundred 

There was the difficulty. He said, "I do not 
want to destroy this thing of slavery without 
compensation. Let me pay you four hundred 
million dollars. It is costing millions of dollars 
a day to carry on the war. Take this money 
that would be spent in war, and stand with the 
Union, and let your slaves go free. A house 
divided against itself cannot stand. I want it 
to stand; it must stand. Give up your peculiar 
institution." No. The vote in the House of 
Representatives was against it. No more eloquent 
passages were ever written by Abraham Lincoln, 
than in his message recommending compensated 
emancipation. 

I often wonder, when we read the Gettysburg 
address, and the second inaugural address, and 
the conclusion of the first inaugural address and 
the letter to Mrs. Bixby, with which you are all 
familiar — I often wonder that there is not read 
with them the conclusion of that message to Con- 
gress on the first of December, 1862, after the 
first emancipation proclamation had been issued 
on September 22d — I often wonder that the pas- 
sage commencing "We cannot escape from this 



Page two hundred one 

thing, " is not put alongside of them as one of the 
most expressive and eloquent expressions that Mr. 
Lincoln ever used. 

The battle of Antietam occured after Mr. Lin- 
coln had written the Emancipation Proclamation. 
He had it put away. He was afraid that if he 
sent forth that proclamation when we were in 
defeat the world would say, "Oh, that is a des- 
perate ruse of a man that has no other resources. 
You are striking blindly. " He would not do that. 
The son of the old pioneer, the grandson of one 
who had fallen in the wilderness with the shot 
of an Indian, the boy who was born in Kentucky 
and had lived in this great state, was a man of 
infinite courage. He would not do an act of any 
kind, even an act setting free the slave, from an 
idea of weakness. He said to the ministers that 
came to him from Chicago, and wanted to issue 
the proclamation before it was ready, "I do not 
want to issue a bull, like the Pope against a comet. 
I cannot stop that. I can scarcely enforce the 
Constitution. I am trying to do that. Why do 
you want me to do this other? " He waited until 
after the battle of Antietam, when General Lee 
came north and invaded the state of Maryland. 



Page two hundred two 

Then there was victory for the United States. 
What did the victory cost? Fourteen thousand 
men on their side and twelve thousand men on 
our side killed and wounded. It was fought on 
Friday. On Saturday it was uncertain for a while 
whether we had gained the victory or lost the 
battle. On Sunday Mr. Lincoln knew that it was 
a victory; and as he said, "I brushed up my 
proclamation and on Monday I let them have it. " 

At last the thunderbolt was thrown! That 
which was to destroy the institution and make 
perfect the character of the United States! Jus- 
tice! Freedom! Not only for the slave, but for 
all the world, because that thought, thus expressed 
and thus embodied, became a part of our Con- 
stitution, that slavery or involuntary servitude, 
except for crime, whereof the party has been duly 
convicted, shall not exist in the United States or 
any place within their jurisdiction. 

Now thus this Illinois man, that had borne 
this mighty weight of battle, even of defeat in the 
field, of strenuous days, for four years rounded 
out and perfected the character of the United 



Page two hundred three 

States, as truly just and truly statesmanlike and 
politic, and embodied it in the Constitution of 
the United States. 

So I say, the character of these United States, 
being of these lineaments and qualities which I 
have endeavored to portray, were impersonated 
in this man. 

What has been done for us? I bore my little 
part in that Grand Army, with your father, and 
your grandfather. I helped a little, but I received, 
and have received, from that day to this, untold 
blessings, in my country's career. What is our 
country now? Is it dissevered? Is it disorgan- 
ized? Is it weak? Look to that fleet now coming 
home across the broad sea, in three columns, like 
the tines in Neptune's trident. It has been around 
the world with our country's flag. Would we 
have had that, had not Lincoln stood up for the 
Union, had the man not been for the Union, had 
the Union not been preserved? I think not. 

Listen to that tall shaft that on the Republic, 
in danger, sent out the summons of peril, to harbor 
and town and vacant ocean, to vessels that has- 
tened to the rescue. You can see Lincoln standing 
there for the Union like that great electric shaft, 



Page two hundred four 

and you can hear the throb in distant household 
and park and altar and field, and the tapping of 
that mysterious sympathy that united a great 
people in a great struggle. They hastened to the 
support of his great effort to save our Union, as 
the vessels went to the rescue of the Republic. 
Bless you! I think so. And I think that as 
mankind is in sympathy everywhere with those 
who rescue from death and the grave in the ocean, 
so our people are in sympathy with the spirit of 
our great republic, and realize that there was a 
redemption, a life-saving act of this great man, 
and that we owe him what he gave us, — integrity. 
My young friends, integrity, honesty, in all of the 
relations of life. Abraham Lincoln paid a debt 
of a few dollars years after it was due because 
he could not pay it when it was due. He walked 
miles to return to a woman the change she had 
given him over the amount she ought to have paid 
him, in his store. He went to his store one morn- 
ing, and found he had sold a parcel of tea to a 
young woman and had put a weight in the scales, 
so it measured lighter than he had supposed. He 
took that much tea, that she had paid for and 
not received, and carried it to her. 



Page two hundred five 

He carried the dollars due from him as post- 
master of New Salem, for years, until the govern- 
ment sent a balance sheet to him, and then he 
said (he was then a lawyer, I believe) "Yes, I 
have put it here on the shelf somewhere." He 
had taken the money due the government and 
put it in an old sack, and kept it for years, until 
the government called for it, then handed it over. 
He had integrity, not alone in great things, that 
all the world knows about, but in the little things 
that we encounter when no one is looking. 

It has been said that a man of true courage 
will perform an act of valor when he is alone 
just as readily as when he is in the eye of millions 
of people. A man of integrity will do acts of 
honesty when no man knows it, when it is in the 
smallest of matters, because it is not the praise 
of the act that makes the man. It is that charac- 
ter that is within him. 

Self reliance! You will need that, my young 
friends. There is nothing you will find more irk- 
some at times than to make up your minds. 
Lincoln was a man that never asked advice as 
to what he should do, after he had determined 
upon it. He listened. He was a man that 



Page two hundred six 

touched life, as I have endeavored to express, 
as a wireless telegraph, to every corner about him. 
He knew more about the political situation of a 
state, or a city, or community, than anybody, 
because he was in tune with it. When he had 
made up his purpose he was as immutable and 
immovable as a rock. 

When disasters were falling upon the army, 
when this battle and that was being lost, when 
men discontented were almost shrieking out, when 
Horace Greeley, his old friend, was criticising him, 
he would have been moved if he ever was. 

Independence! He earned his living. Every 
dollar that he ever spent, he earned. 

Truthfulness ! He had a scorn for anything but 
the absolute truth in regard to every matter. 

I could go on and enumerate and illustrate his 
qualities. You know them. You have read them. 
My thought is to you today, " Be like him. " Our 
public schools have given you great advantages. 

It was my privilege, while I was in the govern- 
ment employ, to have the public schools in charge, 
and it has always been a matter of great consola- 
tion and gratitude to me that you have twenty 
per cent of our pupils in the high schools. 



Page two hundred seven 

Now then, a word about the future and I will 
close. You have the future in your control. If 
you will exercise the qualities that he developed t 
and give to your country the character that it 
now has, and keep it so, you need not fear any 
sudden shock. You will carry with you the 
weapons to meet the emergencies of the future. 
If the call of battle summons, you girls will see 
your brothers and husbands go, as you men your- 
selves will go, at the call of duty; and you will 
have the same courageous determination to per- 
form the daily task that is before you that Lincoln 
had; and with that will be achieved that morality 
which Lincoln in his first inaugural address dem- 
onstrated we must preserve. 

I thank you for your kind attention. I have a 
deep sympathy with you. I am proud that I have 
been given the opportunity by your instructors 
to be here; and if in this feeble address I have 
been able to aid you to a single thought that will 
better your lives and help our country, I shall 
be most grateful. 



Page two hundred eight 



AT THE LINCOLN HOME 

In the afternoon a reception was held at the 
Lincoln Home by the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, at which addresses were made by Mrs. 
Donald McLean of New York and Mrs. E. S. 
Walker of Springfield, and by Ambassadors Jus- 
serand and Bryce. From the Lincoln Home the 
assemblage repaired to the rooms of the Young 
Men's Christian association where a banquet was 
spread under the management of the Daughters 
of the Revolution at which addresses were made 
by Mrs. E. S. Walker, Mrs. William J. Bryan, 
Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, 
Mrs. Chas. V. Hickox, Mrs. Donald McLean and 
others. 

This reception and banquet were largely attended 
by ladies from neighboring cities and states and 
both met the highest hopes of the managers. 



Page two hundred nine 



AT THE HISTORICAL LIBRARY 

On the evening of the 11th a reception was 
held at the rooms of the State Historical Library 
at the Capitol. Among the guests that thronged 
the rooms were a number of persons who knew 
Mr. Lincoln well before his election to the Presi- 
dency. The meeting was quite informal, the ad- 
dresses extemporaneous and largely reminiscent 
in character. Hon. Reddick Ridgely presided 
and brief talks were made by J. McCan Davis; 
B. F. Shaw, Dixon; Paul Selby, Chicago; W. T. 
Norton, Alton; W. M. T. Baker, Bolivia; H. W. 
Clendenin and T. J. Crowder. 



—14 L C 



Page two hundred ten 



AT THE EXECUTIVE MANSION 

At 10 a. m., before their visit to the monument, 
the guests of the Commission called at the Execu- 
tive Mansion where they were received by 
Governor and Mrs. Deneen. Among the number 
were Hon. Robert T. Lincoln; Ambassadors 
Jusserand and Bryce; Senator Dolliver; Hon. 
Wm. J. Bryan; Judge Seaman, Milwaukee; Judge 
Anderson, Indianapolis; Judges Landis and 
Grosscup, Chicago; Judges Klein and Robinson, 
St. Louis; General Noble, St. Louis; Honorables 
James S. Harlan, William Phillips, C. H. But- 
ler, andW. B. Ridgely, Washington; Dr. Edmund 
J. James, Champaign ; Messrs. E. A. Briggs, J. W. 
Harm and Paul Selby, Chicago; and Hon. B. F. 
Shaw, Dixon. 



Page two hundred eleven 



AT THE TOMB 

Early in the day the veterans of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, whose names appear in 
another part of this volume, marched to the Lin- 
coln Monument at Oak Ridge, accompanied by 
a military band, pitched their tents, built a camp- 
fire, and served as a Guard of Honor during the 
day. Many visitors, singly and in groups, found 
their way to the Monument in the course of the 
day. 

Just before noon the guests of the Commission 
together with the State and city officials, Justices 
of the Supreme Court, members of the State Com- 
mission and of the Centennial association and 
many citizens of Springfield, visited the tomb of 
Lincoln. There were no ceremonies of any kind 
during this visit. With bowed heads, uncovered 
the visitors approached the tomb, paid their silent 
tribute to the memory of the honored dead and 
returned to their carriages. 



Page two hundred twelve 



A section of artillery of the State National 
Guard fired the Presidential Salute of twenty-one 
guns as the visitors left the cemetery. 



Page two hundred thirteen 



AT THE ILLINI COUNTRY CLUB 

An informal luncheon was served the guests 
of the Commission on their return from the Monu- 
ment at 12:30, by the Illini Country club. No 
addresses were made and the guests immediately 
after the conclusion of the luncheon, repaired to 
the Tabernacle for the afternoon exercises. 



Page two hundred fourteen 



THE VETERAN GUARD OF HONOR 

Stephenson Post No. 30, G. A. R. 



James A. Connolly, Post Commander 
H. A. Saunders, Post Adjutant 



D. C. Brinkerhoff 
Jacob Smith 

A. E. Saunders 
Albert Brown 

B. R. Hieronymus 
J. O. Sims 

H. Rahman 
John Underfanger 
A. S. Steelman 
J. W. McCune 
Charles Elkin 

D. F. Brewer 
Robert Elliott 
Joseph DeFrietas 
T. N. Deerweester 
G. K. Greening 

J. M. Stephenson 
William Nodine 
M. H. Cotton 
Chas. Schuppel 

E. P. Bartlett 
W. B. Hankins 
N. W. Dobbins 
R. E. Strode 
J. D. Eifert 
John Young 

F. J I. Bruce 



p. b. womack 
Phillip Hoffman 
C C Cruser 
N. A. Van Nattan 
R. W. Ewing 
T. J. Corwine 
Herman Hofferkamp 
John R. Campbell 
James H. Fields 
R. H. Easley 
H. B. Davidson 
W. H. Newlin 
Wm. E. Edwards 
Fred Smith 
Jacob Reeves 
Edward Broecker 
Joseph Birt 
John F. Fagan 
J. F. Pogue 
Z. T. Starkey 
Thos. Solomon 
W. H. Sammons 
A. L. Browne 
Edward S. Johnson 
J. S. Thompson 
H. W. Rokker 



Page two hundred fifteen 

The Veteran Guard of Honor — Concluded 
Mendell Post No. 450 G. A. R. 



John C. Bell, Post Commander 
Samuel D. Scholes, Post Adjutant 



J. M. Rippey 
John G. Roberts 
M. O'Connor 
Alfred Titus 



J. L. Wilcox 
Bryan W. Nicholl 
W. H. Hayden 
Wilson Duggan 



Other Posts, G. A. R. 



J. W. Wood 
J. E. Green 
s. p. mooney 
August Hacke 
Robert Woods 
Nicholas Kaslick 
Geo. Ludlam 
H. T. Richardson 
T. A. Stewart 
S. Hollingsworth 
H. F. Burton 
J. S. Piatt 
A. B. Leeper 
Daniel Van Nattan 
W. M. Haines 



M. Matthews 
J. P. Sarver 
Jacob Milslagle 
Joseph W. King 
N. N. Coons 
D. C. Avery 
A. Wyant 
George Westbrook 
A. F. Weaver 
Charles Waters 
A. S. Capps 
J. M. Sutton 
C. Cushman 
T. D. Shepard 
John N. Nichols 



Page two hundred sixteen 



THE LLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMIS- 
SION 



James A. Connolly, Chairman 

John W. Bunn, Vice Chairman 

Edward D. Keys, Secretary 

Ben F. Caldwell Shelby M. Cullom 

Edwin L. Chapin James A. Creighton 

William Jayne J Otis Humphrey 

Alfred Orendorff Nicholas Roberts 

James A. Rose Edgar S. Scott 

Lawrence Y. Sherman Philip Barton Warren 



Page two hundred seventeen 



LINCOLN CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION 



J Otis Humphrey, President 

John W. Bunn, Vice President 

Philip Barton Warren, Secretary 

J. H. Holbrook, Treasurer 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



John W. Bunn 
Ben F. Caldwell 
E. L. Chapin 
James A. Connolly 
James A. Creighton 
Shelby M. Cullom 
J Otis Humphrey 
Charles S. Deneen 
E. A. Hall 
J. H. Holbrook 
Wm. B. Jess 
Jno. M. Kimble 



Lewis H. Miner 
Roy R. Reece 
Loren E. Wheeler 
William Jayne 
Edward D. Keys 
Alfred Orendorff 
Nicholas Roberts 
James A. Rose 
Edgar S. Scott 
L. Y. Sherman 
Philip Barton Warren 



FINANCE AND MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE 



John W. Bunn, Chairman 
Latham T. Souther, Secretary 



Nicholas Roberts 
John C. Pierik 
James H. Paddock 



W. F. Workman 
James A. Easley 



Page two hundred eighteen 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 

James A. Rose, Chairman 
J. R. B. Van Cleave, Secretary 

Henry M. Merriam A. L. Bowen 

Thomas Rees John W. Scott 



TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE 

William B. Ridgely, Chairman 
Edgar S. Scott, Secretary 

Logan Hay John D. Marney 



BANQUET COMMITTEE 

Phillip Barton Warren, Chairman 
Geo. B. Stadden, Secretary 

John McCreery Walter McClellan Allen 



COMMITTEE ON MUSIC 

E. L. Chapin, Chairman 

Albert Guest Clark B. Shipp 

R. C. Brown 



ARMORY DECORATION COMMITTEE 

Geo. B. Helmle, Chairman 

Henry Abels H. D. Swirles 

Tiios. W. Scott 



Page two hundred nineteen 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 

STREET DECORATION COMMITTEE 

Henry Dirksen, Chairman 

Edward W. Payne H. T. Willet 

Louis H. Myers Walter Van Duyn 

R. E. Hatcher H. L. Ide 

Charles Bressmer Charles H. Robinson 

Fred Buck 



LOCAL TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE 

Emil G. Schmidt Emanuel Salzenstein 

B. R. Stephens G. J. Little 



COMMITTEE ON SPEAKERS 

J Otis Humphrey Charles S. Deneen 

Shelby M. Cullom 



COMMITTEE ON PRINTING AND SOUVENIRS 

J. R. B. Van Cleave James W. Jefferson 

James H. Paddock 



COMMITTEE ON CEREMONIES 

James A. Rose J. H. Collins 

Francis G. Blair 



Page two hundred twenty 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Out-of-Town Life Members 



Armour, J. Ogden, Chicago 
Armsby, Geo. N., San Fran- 
cisco 
Arthurs, W. C, Mt. Vernon 
Aymar, Jno. W., New York 
Ball, John, Farmersville 
Bartlett, A. C, Chicago 
Baxter, Ed. A., Pawnee 
Beall, Wm. G., Chicago 
Beggs, Edwin C, Ashland 
Bennett, Wm. W., Rockford 
Bethea, S. H., DLxon 
Blodgett, W. H., St. Louis 
Bogardus, Charles, Paxton 
Briggs, Asa G., St. Paul 
Brown, W. B., New Berlin 
Brown, Everett J., Decatur 
Brown, W. L., Chicago 
Brown, Charles G., Divernon 
Bullard, W. S., Mechanics- 
burg 
Burgett, Scott, Newman 
Caldwell, Ben F., Chatham 
Carriel, H. B., Jacksonville 
Cheney, J. H., Bloomington 
Chytraus, Axel, Chicago 
Crafts, C. E., Chicago 
Craig, Jas. W., Mattoon 
Curry, J. Seymour, Chicago 
Crea, H., Decatur 
Deal, John, Hiverton 
Denton, E. P., Hamilton 
Dunn, Frank K., Charleston 
Farmer, W. M., Vandalia 
Ferns, Thos. F., Jersey ville 
Fetzcr, Win., Middletown, O. 
Francis, D. R., St. Louis 
Freeland, Jno. A., Bethany 
J ■iml:, LaFayette, Blooming- 
ton 



Garische, F. A., Madison 
Garvey, Henry C, Buffalo 
Gibson, Jas. F., Carthage 
Gill, Jas. A., Vinita, Okla. 
Gorin, O. B., Decatur 
Grant, Walter J., Danville 
Grosscup, P. S., Chicago 
Halbert, W. U., Belleville 
Hamill, E. A., Chicago 
Hand, Jno. P., Cambridge 
Harahan, J. T., Chicago 
Harris, Geo. B., Chicago 
Henry, Edward U., Peoria 
Higbee, Harry, Pittsfield 
Hitt, J. Brown, New Berlin 
Holdom, Jesse, Chicago 
Hough,Warwick M., St. Louis 
Hurt, John S., Buffalo Hart 
James, Edmund J., Cham- 
paign 
Jewell, W. R., Danville 
Johnston, Milton, Decatur 
Kent, P. J., Lanesville 
Kerrick, Thos. C, Blooming- 
ton 
Leonard, E. F., Amherst, 

Mass. 
Lillard, Jno. T., Bloomington 
Lindley, Frank, Danville 
Little, Jno. S., Rushville 
Lovett, Robert H., Peoria 
Lowden, Frank O., Chicago 
Lowry, W. W., Auburn 
Lucas, J. A., Lincoln 
Lyon, J. M., Pontiac 
Maguiro, J. B., E. St. Louis 
Matthirsscn, F. W., LaSalle 
McDaniel, Oliver, Buffalo 
McDonald, E. S., Decatur 
McEwen, Willard M., Chicago 



Page two hundred twenty-one 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Out-of-Town Life Members — Concluded 



McNeil, J. F., Oskaloosa, la. 
Mills, R. W., Virginia 
Mitchell, Wm. H., Chicago 
Moloney, M. T., Ottawa 
Morris, Edward, Chicago 
Morris, Edward H., Chicago 
Musser, Charles, Pearl City 
Nash, O. S., Sharpsburg 
Neidringhaus, R. E., Granite 

City 
Nelson, John, Donovan 
Oglesby, J. D. G., Elkhart 
Orear, T. B., Jacksonville 
Parker, Edward J., Quincy 
Parsons, George, Cairo 
Pinckney, I. C, Peoria 
Prather, J. F., Williamsville 
Prather, Jno. W., Williams- 
ville 
Ramsey, F. E., Morrison 
Rankin, Geo. C, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 
Regan, J. F., Mt. Sterling 
Rew, Robert, Rockford 
Ridgely, Wm. Barrett, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 



Rinaker, John L, Carlinville 
Roberts, James, Chicago 
Scott, A. R., Bethany 
Seipp, W. C, Chicago 
Shepherd, Thos. A., Pawnee 
Shirley, Robert B., Carlin- 
ville 
Shriver, J. H., Virden 
Simonson, S. E., Luxora, 

Ark. 
Small, Len, Kankakee 
Smith, Bryon L., Chicago 
Smith, Geo. W., Carbondale 
Smith, Orson, Chicago 
Smith, W. W., Joliet 
Tuttle, I. R., Harrisburg 
Twist, Ira F., Taylorville 
Warfield, W. S., Quincy 
Watts, John L., Danville 
Weir, Miller, Jacksonville 
Whitcomb, H. F., Milwaukee 
Wilms, Fred, Quincy 
Willson, Howard T., Virden 
Winston, B. C, St. Louis 
Yantis, J. W., Shelby ville 
Zoline, Elijah N., Chicago 



Springfield Life Members 



Abels, Henry 
Adams, Alfred 
Addleman, O. G. 
Allen, Walter McC. 
Anderson, Jas. H. 
Ansell, Oscar 
Appel, Jacob M. 
Armstrong, W. P. 
Babcock, O. B. 
Bacchus. L. L. 



Bahr, Raymond V. 
Ball, Richard 
Barber, John A. 
Barker, H. E. 
Barker, S. A. 
Barkley, James H. 
Barnes, A. J. 
Barnes, Edgar S. 
Barry, W. B. 
Bates, Geo. A. 



Page two hundred txcenty-two 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Springfield Life Members — Continued 



Becker, Geo. H. 
Berry, R. L. 
Bisch, Chas. T. 
Bisch, Harold P. 
Black, John W. 
Blackstock, Ira B. 
Blair, F. G. 
Blankemeyer, H. C. 
Bode, Frank H. 
Booth, Alfred 
Bowcock, C. M. 
Bowen A. L. 
Bradford, Wm. A. 
Brainerd, Jas. L. 
Bressmer, Charles 
Bressmer, John 
Bretz, John E. 
Bretz, John F. 
Brinkerhoff, Geo. M., Sr. 
Brinkerhoff, Geo. M., Jr. 
Brinkerhoff, John H. 
Broadwell, Stuart 
Brown, Milton Hay 
Brown, Owsley 
Brown, R. C. 
Brown, Stuart 
Bruce, W. H. 
Buck, Fred 
Bunker, Wm. A. M. 
Bunn, Geo. W. 
Bunn, Henry 
Bunn, Jacob 
Bunn, John W. 
Bunn, Joseph F. 
Bunn, Willard 
Burke, Edmund 
Burnett, B. T. 
Burns, Win. G. 
Butler. W. J. 
Cadwallader, J. F. 



Carroll, C. C. 
Castle, Stanley 
Chapin, E. L. 
Chatterton, G. W., Sr. 
Child, Henry L. 
Coe, George E. 
Coe, Louis J. 
Cole, Nathan 
Coleman, L. H. 
Coleman, Logan 
Coleman, Louis G. 
Collins, J. H. 
Conkling, Clinton L. 
Conkling, Wm. H. 
Connelly, Geo. S. 
Connolly, James A. 
Converse, A. L. 
Converse, H. A. 
Converse, W. O. 
Condell, Thomas 
Condon, T. J. 
Conway, W. H. 
Cook, J. L. 
Cook, John C. 
Creighton, James A. 
Crook, A. N. J. 
Cullom, Shelby M. 
Danner, L. A. 
Davidson, Gaylord 
Davis, Henry 
Davis, J. McCan 
Day, Geo. Edward 
Deal, Don 
Deneen, Charles S. 
DeRosset, F. A. 
Dcsnoyers, V. E. 
Desnoyers, W. L. 
DeVares, D. A. 
Dillcr, Isaac R. 
Diller, J. W. 



Page two hundred twenty-three 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Springfield Life Members — Continued 



Dirksen, Henry A. 
Dodds, J. C. 
Dodds, R. N. 
Dorwin, H. F. 
Dorwin, Shelby C. 
Dowling, James E. 
Drennan, B. F. 
Dubois, Lincoln 
Dunlop, Geo. C. 
Dunn, E. J. 
Easley, James A. 
Easley, R. H. 
Edward, A. W. 
Edwards, A. S. 
Egan, Richard 
Elshoff, Anton 
Farris, Joseph 
Feaster, C. W. 
Fisher, Frank R. 
Fiske, C. A. 
Fitzgerald, A. M. 
Fogarty, J. G. 
Fortado, Jno. L. 
Franz, John B. 
Frazee, C. A. 
Frederick, D. C. 
Furlong, James. 
Garber, M. B. 
George, G. J. 
Giblin, C. J. 
Gillespie, George B. 
Godley, Frank 
Graham, Hugh J. 
Graham, James M. 
Guest, R. A. 
Haas, R. 
Hagler, A. Lee 
Hagler, Elmer E. 
Halderman, Nathan 
Hail, E. A. 



Hall, James A. 
Hamilton, Wathen 
Hanes, S. J. 
Hankins, W. B. 
Hartman, Edw. F. 
Hatch, F. L. 
Hatch, Pascal E. 
Hatcher, R. E. 
Hay, Charles E. 
Hay, Logan 
Hazell, E. F. 
Helmle, Ernest H. 
Helmle, George B. 
Helper, J. C. 
Hemmick, J. E. 
Herndon, R. F. 
Hickey, Rev. T. 
Hickox, G. C. 
Hicks, Howard T. 
Hieronymus, B. R. 
Hoff, Alonzo 
Holbrook, J. H. 
Howard, W. M. 
Hudson, J. L. 
Hudson, Ridgely 
Hughes, Arthur F. 
Humphrey, J Otis 
Humphrey, Otis S. 
Hunn, R. G. 
Hurst, Charles H. 
Ide, H. L. 
Ide, Roy 
Irwin, Edwin F. 
Irwin, Horace C. 
James, A. C. 
Jamison, F. R. 
Jayne, William . 
Jefferson, James W. 
Jefferson, Roy T. 
Jess, Wm. B. 



Page two hundred twenty-four 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Springfield Life Members — Continued 



Johnson, Edward S. 
Jones, James A. 
Jones, James T. 
Jones, M. A. 
Jones, Nicholas R. 
Jones, S. T. 
Kane, Charles P. 
Keys, Alvin S. 
Keys, Edward D. 
Keys, Edward L. 
Keys, George E. 
Kimble, John M. 
Kinsella, R. F. 
Kirlin, Ben M. 
Klaholt, Carl 
Knudson, Benjamin 
Kreider, Geo. N. 
Lange, B. A. 
Latham, Geo. C. 
Latham, Henry C. 
Legg, F. M. 
Leland, J. A. 
Lewis, Warren E. 
Little, G. J. 
Lloyd, G. L. 
Lloyd, John H. 
Logan, Rev. T. D. 
Lomelino, E. F. 
Long, Fred W. 
Loper, Harry T. 
Lord, J. S. 
Lubbe, Henry B. 
Luby, T. P. 
Lutz, John. 
Lyon, T. E. 
Mackie, A. D. 
Macphenon, A. B. 
Macphenon, J. F. 
Rfalaaner, John 
Margrave, James M. 



Marlowe, William 
Marney, J. D. 
Masters, H. W. 
Matheny, Robert 
Matheny, J. H. 
Maurer, A. F. 
Maxon, O. F. 
McAnulty, R. H. 
McCreery, John 
McCullough, J. S. 
McGowan, Frank M. 
McGrue, H. O. 
McLennan, J. F. 
McVeigh, Henry B. 
Melick, John E. 
Merriam, H. M. 
Miller, J. F. 
Miller, L. S. 
Mills, Charles F. 
Miner, Lewis H. 
Mockler, John P. 
Mortimer, C. F. 
Munson, S. E. 
Murphy, P. F. 
Murray, G. W. 
Murray, T. J. 
Myers, Albert 
Myers, Lewis M. 
Xickcy, Harry W. 
Northcott, W. A. 
Orendorff, Alfred 
Orr, James R. 
Paddock, James H. 
Page, H. c. 
Palmer, Geo. Thomas 
Pasfield, George, Sr. 
Pasfield, George, Jr. 
Patton, Charles L. 
Pattern, James \\ . 
Patton, William L. 



Page two hundrei twenty-five 

Lincoln Centennial Association — Continued 
Springfield Life Members — Continued 



Pavey, W. A. 
Payne, E. W. 
Payton, J. K. 
Phillips, D. L. 
Pierik, Herman 
Pierik, John C. 
Pope, John 
Potter, Fred W. 
Potts, Rufus M. 
Power, C. A. 
Pride, H. T. 
Prince, A. E. 
Pruitt, Edgar C. 
Pyle, Henry C. 
Quackenbush, G. W. 
Quinlan, John 
Rankin, Albert H. 
Ransom, Isaac N. 
Ray, Verne 
Rearden, Horace 
Reece, Roy R. 
Rees, Thomas 
Reisch, Frank 
Reisch, George 
Reisch, Leonard 
Remann, Henry C. 
Rich, Benjamin 
Ridgley, William 
Roberts, C. D. 
Roberts, Nicholas 
Robinson, Chas. H. 
Robinson, E. S. 
Rogers, Rev. E. B. 
Rogers, Roy F. 
Roper, J. D. 
Rose, James A. 
Rottger, C. H. 
Salzenstein, Albert 
Salzenstein, Emanuel 
Samuels, L. J. 



Schaff, M. D. 
Schanbacher, C. H. 
Schlierbach, F. L. 
Schmidt, Emil G. 
Schnepp, John S. 
Scholes, J. B. 
Scholes, S. D. 
Schuck, Charles 
Scott, Edgar S. 
Scott, John W. 
Scott, Thomas W. 
Seeley, Roy M. 
Shand, Richings J. 
Sheehan, Joseph J. 
Sheehan, William 
Shelton, Law 
Sherman, L. Y 
Shepherd, Chas. M. 
Shepherd, Wm. B. 
Shipp, Clark B. 
Sikes, John H. 
Sikking, A. W. 
Simmons, Frank 
Skelly, Geo. M. 
Smith, D. W. 
Smith, E. S. 
Smith, Hal M. 
Smith, Wm. W. 
Snively, E. A. 
Solenberger, H. M. 
Sommer, W. C. 
Souther, Latham T. 
Southwick, J. W. 
Spaulding, W. J. 
Stadden, E. A. 
Stadden, Geo. B 
Starck, W. C. 
Stead, W. H. 
Stephens, B. R. 
Stericker, Geo. F. 



—15 l c 



Page two hundred twenty-siz 



Lincoln Centennial Association— Concluded 
Springfield Life Members — Concluded 



Stevens, Henry A. 
Story, J. H. 
Stout, Sam'l J. 
Strongman, R. H. 
Stuart, J. W. 
Sudduth, Thos. W. 
Sullivan, Wm. H. 
Swett, W. W., Jr. 
Swirles, H. G. 
Taylor, L. C. 
Taylor, Will 
Terry, W. E. 
Thayer, E. R. 
Townsend, W. A. 
Tuttle, H. H. 
Vance, J. W. 
Vancil, Burke 
Van Cleave, J. R. B. 
Van Duyn, Walter 
Vredenburg, Peter, Sr. 
Vredenburg, Robert 0. 
Vredenburg, Thomas, D. 
Vredenburg, W. R. 
Walters, C. H. 
Walters, J. C. 
Warren, P. B. 



Weber, Howard K. 
Werner, Charles 
Wheeler, L. E. 
White, J. E. 
Whittemore, H. C. 
Wiedlocher, Frank 
Wiggins, Horace L. 
Wiggins, Lewis N. 
Willett, H. T. 
Willett, Samuel J. 
Williams, Daniel T. 
Wilson, Bluford 
Wilson, G. M. 
Wilson, H. Clay 
Wilson, H. W. 
W T ilson, J. F. 
Wilson, Thomas W. 
Wineteer, Chas. G. 
Wing, T. E. 
Woods, C. M. 
Workman, W. F. 
York, John 
Young, W. A. 
Zapf, William 
Zimmerman, Joseph 
Zumbrook, Chas. W. 






